After two weeks of testing new ways to scry for information and finding countless ways that didn’t work, at least not in the ways I wanted them to, I was finally able to observe Lia’s training by borrowing the group’s senses. Their training had gone fairly well, focused on reinforcing the damage I had done to the burned area by conjuring up that storm and slowing down its recovery. They couldn’t completely stop it, there was far too much ground to cover for that, but they were good enough to limit where and how fast the Bitumen could work.

Ultimately, the solution for my scrying problem was one I hadn’t considered initially, as it went into a completely different direction while incorporating parts of both my initial solutions. From my scrying constructs, I took the magical elements that allowed me to link the sensory information I received to a solid object, so I wouldn’t have to keep watch at all times. Instead, I could use a water mirror to display the information the other enchantments send and keep watch that way. I could even have another person observe, which the Chief would undoubtedly be delighted by.

The idea to tap somebody’s senses panned out fairly well. Not quite in the way I had hoped it would, there were some problems with the spellwork and the way I needed to anchor it, but the overall concept was sound. The only problem was that it was pretty complex, not something I could just will into existence, let alone maintain over a significant period of time. It was just too complex, especially given the subtle differences in how people processed information. The entire topic was fascinating, incredibly so, but sadly, it was just as complex and complicated as it was interesting.

I was already making plans to expand this particular field of study into Mind Magic illusions, allowing me to manipulate the senses of my enemies, or perhaps use it in other, more benign ways. For example, the Bullet Time Special Ability I had gained right when Road to Purgatory started was, if I understood it correctly, one that used something similar to manipulate my experience of time. If I could reverse-engineer the technique and then reverse it, I would have an incredibly potent tool in my hands, allowing me to significantly slow down my enemies. One that completely bypassed the physical body, targeting the mind, a weakness for the vast majority of enemies we had faced since the Change.

Sure, there were a few foes with a powerful mind, but compared to the usual brutes we had to contend with, they were few and far between. Slowing down the reactions of a foe by a significant amount would be an incredible boon to fighters like Lia, who relied on their speed above all. Her preferred method to fight remained a quick and precise attack, either to incapacitate, if she wanted to drain their blood, or to simply kill them.

However, regardless of these musings of mine about the potential of my idea for the future, the central part, the key that brought the disparate elements of my idea together and, quite literally, anchored them to reality, was the genuinely new and innovative element.

My original plan had been fairly simple, make some sort of spell I could put on the people as they went into the dungeon, or maybe conjure a construct and send it into the dungeon with them. The more I worked on the spells I needed and the way I wanted to make them work, the greater the complexity of the spellwork involved and the harder it got to make it work.

At first, I had considered a ritual of some sort, my go-to solution to make a complicated piece of magic work, but there were some major downsides to that. The biggest was the minimal duration such a solution would provide. The magical structures needed were highly delicate, degrading quickly unless I could constantly monitor and adjust them. To make matters worse, any active powers would disrupt the delicate weave; hel, even physical exertion could be enough to do so. There was no way this would stand up to any combat, or the transition into a dungeon, not unless I could physically anchor the spellwork.

So, another solution was needed to protect the delicate, magical weave. Inscribing magical formations on the body might be one way to do so, but I felt it would be better to do something similar to the magical bags I had made, or the Winged Boots I was trying to create for my daughters.

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Sure, I hadn’t managed so far, but that wasn’t the important part; the important part was that I had a complicated piece of magic and was working it into an enchanted item, so I wouldn’t have to keep focused on it. The concept was similar to the magical bags I had made so long ago. An incredibly complex piece of magic I wouldn’t be able to sustain manually, reduced into a magical item we could use for our convenience, without issues of complexity getting in the way.

Once I had that idea, I began to work the different magical processes I had envisioned into an enchantment, slowly building the complex layers of magic around a central core. The initial core was made from Hard Ice, as it was a somewhat resilient material, and I had an infinite amount of it. It wouldn’t work long-term, not with the way it was slowly degraded by the magical energy coursing through it, but it worked just fine as an initial proof of concept.

The core would later be placed into a necklace or a choker of some sort, carrying a few more enchantments and allowing me to link two of the wearer’s senses, namely sight and sound, to another prepared receiver. For that, I enchanted a frame to be filled with water at a later point, making it look eerily similar to a television or computer screen. Just that the sights we would see on it were real, as were the sounds it would emit.

Amusingly, it took me a bit of time to figure out the final piece of resistance, a way to link the enchantments on the crystal and its choker to the wearer’s mind. The epiphany came when I tried adding a somewhat simple enchantment to the choker, increasing the wearer’s Intelligence and Intuition by one each. Simple, yet it needed to interact with the wearer’s mind and senses, working as a convenient link to both while also providing the wearer a neat benefit.

Once that was all done, I sacrificed a few of the gemstones we had looted over our journey and carefully started to enchant them. Crystal Magic allowed me to alter the structure of these gems, enabling me to write the required magical formations and runes directly into their structure, a skill I had acquired while working with Ice. It allowed me to make use of the crystal’s volume, not just its surface, letting me pack a great deal more complexity into a fairly small size, which, in turn, let me make my enchantments a lot more efficient. Otherwise, these chokers might only work for somebody of a higher level.

Luckily, the initial tests worked, and I could soon hand them out to Lia’s group for further testing, which is where we were now. The entire system was working fairly well, if one ignored a few small glitches.

The resolution of the conjured Water Mirrors wasn’t perfect, and some sounds caused slight ripples in the water, slightly distorting the images. Sadly, I wasn’t sure if there was a way to improve the mirrors and eliminate these problems. Furthermore, some of the higher sound frequencies and a few of the brighter colours did not translate quite as well as one would hope. Lastly, I had no idea what would happen if somebody used magic to manipulate the user's senses, making them see or hear something that wasn’t there. Still, ultimately, it was good enough to do what we needed it to. Now, I just had to demonstrate all that to the Chief.

“So, as you can see, the remote observation works quite well,” I told the Chief, feeling justifiably proud of my creation.

By the looks of it, the Chief agreed with my pride and assessment, as he looked somewhat wide-eyed at the images seen on the watery surface. Additionally, I was somewhat lucky that the group, with Lia acting as observer and occasionally giving advice, was tearing through a small group of Bitumen, working together as a unit and employing tactics to keep the Bitumen contained while preventing them from bringing their power to bear. It was quite impressive, especially as it was a completely different approach to the one my own group would take.

This group lacked a great deal of power, but if I was being honest with myself, their teamwork compensated quite well for that.

“We can start the final steps of their training,” the Chief finally stated, his voice heavy with the responsibility. “It also doubles as a test for them. If they can’t clear a way into the central area and past those structures with their death rays you described, the entire thing is off.”

“So, that’s what they will be tasked to do, without any outside help. Get to the dungeon, and we will see from there.” It was easy to hear that the Chief didn’t like this situation. But, just as obvious as his dislike was that he saw the necessity of this, especially after the burned land had already started to recover over these last two weeks.