~ CHAPTER 302

I took another sip of Bella's rejuvenating tea and looked over my notifications. I couldn't put it off. I would need any additional strength I could get if we were going into the heart of the dungeon that was spitting out endless banshee demons.

[Illusion Magic has increased from level 6 to level 10]

[Learned Illusion Magic Spell Disguise]

[Learned Illusion Magic Spell Illusory Curtain]

[Learned Illusion Magic Spell Still Invisibility]

[Your party have defeated 631 Banshees] Check latest chapters at noᴠelfire.net

[Your level has increased from level 55 to level 57]

[Apprentice Magic Swordsman has increased from level 1 to level 3]

[Luck Magic has increased from level 14 to level 15]

[Learned Luck Magic Spell Manipulate Probability]

[Light Magic has increased from level 21 to level 29]

[Light Manipulation has increased from level 20 to level 24]

[Enhancement Magic has increased from level 14 to level 18]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Reveal Illusions]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Chromatic Halo]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Blinding Crescent]

[Light Magic Spell Light Imbue and Light Magic Spell Armor of Light have merged and evolved into Light Magic Spell Arms of Light]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Winged Cloak of Light]

[Light Magic Spell Light Ward has evolved into Light Magic Spell Light Shield]

[You have created the new Light Magic Spell Brilliant Laser]

[Sorsette the Goddess of Knowledge and Innovation smiles upon you]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Fortification of Light]

[Learned Enhancement Magic Spell Cloak of Darkness]

[Learned Enhancement Magic Spell Harden Skin]

[Pack Tactics has increased from level 9 to level 15]

I sucked in a breath at all of the level gains. In the thick of things, I hadn't really considered how many of them our group had killed as we crossed the bridge, but the effects of all of our kills had been significant. The clear winner for my level gains was in light magic. Not that surprising, considering how much light magic I had used in combination with my new [Light Domain] spell. I also couldn't help but feel proud of my new spell creation. This confirmed that no one else had taken light magic this far before. I felt a bit giddy to read the new spell, but I feel like it would make the most sense to read all of the spells from the top, starting with the new illusion magic I learned. I didn't want to get distracted and overlook anything new I gained.

[Disguise - Illusion Magic Spell]

Use illusion magic to create a subtle veil of magic that can alter the target's features and voice. This spell does not alter the physical body and anyone coming in contact with any parts of a body that are not disguised may break the illusion. This spell reserves a portion of your mana affected by your Magic Control and drains your mana as upkeep as long as the effect is maintained. This illusion is strengthened by your Magic Force and resisted by the Will stat of anyone looking at the disguise.

This seemed like a good tool to have available to me. The wording also implied that I can use it on someone other than myself, which could come in handy. As for its effectiveness on me, I'll have to test if it's cheaper to maintain this effect versus using [Succubus Shifting] to actually alter my appearance. I suspected it was cheaper, but even if it wasn't, it would still be useful if I ever needed to disguise a non-succubi. I'll have to do a little testing when my life isn't in danger. A surprisingly rare occurrence lately.

[Illusory Curtain - Illusion Magic Spell]

Create a movable two-dimensional projection. Clarity and the size of the illusion, as well as the distance at which the illusion can be cast, is affected by Magic Force. Control over the illusion after it's been cast is affected by Magic Control.

This sounded like an upgraded version of [Mirage] and gave me even less information to work with. This was another ability that would require some testing. If nothing else, the ability to move and control the illusion after casting it sounds useful, but I'm unsure of how easy it will be to use.

[Still Invisibility - Illusion Magic Spell]

Use illusion magic to create a subtle veil of magic that will hide you as long as you remain reasonably still. Physical contact with someone may break the illusion. This spell reserves a portion of your mana affected by your Magic Control and drains your mana as upkeep as long as the effect is maintained. This illusion is strengthened by your Magic Force and resisted by the Will stat of anyone looking at the illusion.

The wording is similar to disguise, but this time the spell is for invisibility. The applications of illusion magic are interesting, but it's pretty obvious what it's mainly used for based on the kinds of spells I'm getting. I was using my [Mirage] spell to try to hide, so it's not too surprising that I'm getting similar spells, but maybe I should try to use some illusion magic for fun things sometimes. It will probably affect the kinds of magic I get access to in the future.

The next spell I had been eyeing since I first saw it. I was intensely curious what exactly [Manipulate Probability] did, and how powerful it was. It seems like the kind of spell that should break the laws of the universe.

[Manipulate Probability - Luck Magic Spell]

It would be funny if you had a spell to cheat at games! You may spend mana to increase or decrease the probability of any random event in a small localized area. The magnitude of the change is affected by Magic Force. The subtlety of the spell is affected by Magic Control.

I stared at the text of the spell with confusion. Sometimes some of the things in the system had something akin to... I don't know, flavor text for lack of a better term, but this spell sounds like something Fortuna created on a whim. It was a bit hard not to read the first line of the spell in her voice. The text also seemed to greatly downplay the effect manipulating random chance should have. It would obviously affect a lot more than games, especially since it doesn't even specify anything. It just says it only affects a random event in a small localized area. I would have to test to see how small and how localized we're talking about, but this seems a lot more powerful than the silly flavor text makes it sound... Or am I making the spell out to be something it's not? I'm not sure, but I would be crazy not to investigate this spell as thoroughly as I can later.

I decided I would play with the spell and learn its limits later. Just the thought of combining it with some of my other luck magic sounded powerful, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to do that or not. I shook my head and decided to move on. I had a lot of other spells to get through. From the looks of it, the others were also looking through their new abilities as well, so I had a bit of time, but I didn't want to hold everyone back once we were all ready because I couldn't focus.

[Reveal Illusions - Light Magic Spell]

Imbue another light magic spell with the ability to destroy any illusions the spell casts its light on if this spell's effect is stronger than the target illusion. The strength of this spell's effect is determined by the caster's Magic Force and the level of the caster's light magic skill. If this spell is used on an immediate effect spell, it increases its cost by a small amount. If used on an ongoing spell effect, it increases the upkeep by a small amount. The additional cost this spell imposes is reduced by Magic Control.

This spell is quite interesting. The effect seems helpful, especially if the additional cost isn't too much, but reading it opens up a lot of possibilities I hadn't considered before. This spell is able to alter other spells. That means there must be an entire subclass of magic that are metamagic spells. Spells that change the effects of other spells in different ways. This is something worth researching more when I have the chance too.

[Chromatic Halo - Light Magic Spell]

While active, this spell augments all light magic spells to be effective against targets that are not shadow or dark aligned. This spell reserves a portion of your mana affected by your Magic Control, drains your mana as upkeep as long as the effect is maintained, but does not alter the cost of other light spells.

Wow... well, that opens up a lot of new possibilities as well. This seems like another kind of metamagic, like I was thinking about before, but it changes my magic as an upkeep cost rather than an additive cost. I think that my [Light Domain] was already doing something similar, but this spell might be a bit more versatile or affect spells that wouldn't be improved in that way by the field. It was also worth checking to see if it costs less and if it could be combined with the effects of [Light Domain]. I was a bit excited to test it out. I feel like it would be fine to test this out in combat when I have the chance.

[Blinding Crescent - Light Magic Spell]

Create and shoot a fast moving crescent of pure light magic in any direction from the caster that blinds enemies that are hit by the projectile. Damage and speed of the projectile are affected by Magic Force. Intensity of the blinding effect is affected by Magic Control. Blinding Crescent can only damage dark and shadow-aligned enemies.

This seems like a useful offensive spell. This would give me a directly damaging option other than [Light Orb], which was barely an offensive spell in the first place. I had used it on a few shadow-aligned demons to decent effect in the past, but it wasn't usually very useful. Both [Light Orb] and [Blinding Crescent] would be actual offensive spells now that I had [Chromatic Halo], even if [Light Domain] didn't make the spells directly offensive the same way it made [Light Burst] damage enemies. But [Blinding Crescent] would be useful for its blinding effect alone.

[Arms of Light - Light Magic Spell]

Create glowing hard-light constructs in the form of weapons or armor. Weapons created using this spell do additional magic damage to targets. The physical durability of these constructs are affected by Magic Force, and the duration of their existence is affected by Magic Control. Weapons or armor created in this way can be reinforced with mana to repair any damage or increase their duration. They may also be upkept with mana to extend their existence for as long as sufficient mana is supplied to them. The constructs created in this way can be partially incorporeal to allow for improving existing weapons and armor, but the strength of the construct is lessened if used in this way. Weapons and armor created using this skill do increased damage and have increased durability against shadow and dark-aligned enemies.

I read the spell's description a few times as I thought about the applications this new spell could have. I wondered how loosely it defined weapons and armor. There are a lot of things that could be used as a weapon or could provide protection. This spell might be a Swiss-Army Knife of utility, or it could just be a slightly better [Light Imbue]. If nothing else, it might be more convenient than casting multiple instances of each spell if I wanted to give both effects, and gaining this new spell didn't take away my ability to cast the old ones if there were any downsides. I feel like I was starting to sound like a broken record, but this would require testing as well. Other than the mana cost, it seemed pretty straightforward though, so I wouldn't be worried about testing it out in the dungeon. If the spell drew too much mana, I could just cancel it before it completed.

[Winged Cloak of Light - Light Magic Spell]

Create a light magic construct that gives the target of the spell the ability to glide and fly. The physical durability of these constructs are affected by Magic Force, and the duration of the cloak is affected by Magic Control. The cloak can be reinforced with mana to increase its duration by either the caster or the wearer. The cloak may also be upkept with mana to extend its duration for as long as sufficient mana is supplied to the spell.

My eyes widened as I realized that this was a flying spell!

One that I could target others with! Bella and I could already fly using our true forms, but this would allow others in the group to come with us. I was incredibly excited by this new spell. I couldn't wait to test it out! Ack, I wish that I had learned it under different circumstances, but I couldn't wait to tell the others about this new spell. I looked around, but everyone else still had that glazed look that meant they were looking at their own notifications, so I decided to finish up before talking about it with everyone.

[Light Shield - Light Magic Spell]

Create a shield of light that can block or deflect physical and magic damage. Strength of the barrier is affected by Magic Force and Magic Control. Light Shield is weak against shadow and dark-aligned attacks.

Oddly enough, the description of [Light Shield] and [Light Ward] looked almost identical, but [Light Shield] had fewer options, rather than more. I began to cast it and quickly realized why. In exchange for the ability to alter its color, shape, and brightness, it was stronger. It was a more focused defensive ability based on [Light Ward], which was primarily how I had used it until now. I did like the other features of [Light Ward] though, so it was good I could still use the older version of it.

I pushed the thought about [Light Shield] out of my mind as I finally got to the spell I had been most excited for when I started. [Brilliant Laser].

[Brilliant Laser - Light Magic Spell]

Channel an intensely focused beam of pure light magic that cuts or burns through anything in its path. The damage and effective range of this spell are affected by Magic Force. The channeled mana cost of this spell is affected by Magic Control. Brilliant Laser does increased damage to dark and shadow-aligned enemies.

It was a pretty simple description for what I knew had to be a devastating spell. It was also notably the only offensive light magic spell I have that doesn't specify that it only affects dark and shadow-aligned enemies, it says it does increased damage instead. Another thing that was interesting to me was that it specified it has an effective range. Other spells had effective ranges, but maybe since this one would undoubtedly be a long-range spell, it was explicit that its range would be affected by Magic Force. Or maybe it was listed this way because lasers more or less have infinite range before the light scatters too much, so maybe the damage it dealt wouldn't go the entire distance of the laser? I couldn't wait to test it out. This one should be easy to get away with using the next time I fight. I would just have to be especially careful about aiming the laser. It seemed like it would be easier to hit friends with it than other spells if I wasn't careful.

[Fortification of Light - Light Magic Spell]

Create a magical damage-resistant, hard-light construct that can be used as a physical barrier as long as it has supplied mana. Durability and scale of the construct are increased by supplied mana and affected by Magic Force. Control over the exact dimensions and decorations are affected by Magic Control. The construct will absorb nearby ambient mana to maintain its existence as long as ambient mana is available or additional mana is supplied directly.

This was an interesting spell... but again, it would require testing to see how useful it was. The constructs also seemed semi-permanent as long as they were supplied with mana... which could open up some interesting possibilities. Theoretically, as long as it had enough nearby ambient mana, could I build an entire structure with this spell? It was named Fortification of Light, which implied to me that it was talking about a fort, or a wall, not just a brick. Either way, as interesting as this spell could be, it wasn't very useful to me at this exact moment.

[Cloak of Darkness - Enhancement Magic Spell]

This spell temporarily imbues your body with magic that improves your ability to move silently and uses light absorption magic to increase your ability to hide in darkness and low light. This spell reserves a portion of your mana and drains your mana as upkeep as long as it stays in effect.

Hmm, this seems like it would work similarly to [Light Siphon]. Maybe this enhancement spell was influenced by my use of that. A lot of my enhancement magic has been influenced by my light magic, but that makes some amount of sense considering I didn't use as many other magical aspects until recently.

[Harden Skin - Enhancement Magic Spell]

This spell temporarily imbues your body with magic that makes your skin more resistant to piercing, cutting, and bruising. This spell also reduces the effect of concussive force on the caster. This spell reserves a portion of your mana and drains your mana as upkeep as long as it stays in effect. A larger portion of your mana can be reserved for stronger effects up to a cap.

This was actually one of the more useful 'traditional' style enhancement spells that Theo had taught me about when he was helping me learn about enhancement magic. This would make me much more difficult to hurt in a fight and was probably more in line with what the [Magic Swordsman] class was seemingly built for. He had told me about some of its other uses, like mitigating damage from falling or being knocked around by larger creatures. I was pleased to see it, especially compared to [Cloak of Darkness]. That spell was helpful, sure, but [Harden Skin] was much more likely to keep me alive than a lot of other defensive abilities I've gained so far.

The last thing to worry about was assigning the unallocated stat points I had gained from the last two primary levels while I had the chance. I had twenty points to allocate. My Magic Force was outpacing everything else after my class bonus, and I got a nice boost to Speed for the same thing, but my Magic Control was still at 100. Increasing that would probably help my mana pool, since Magic Control often affected the costs of spells. The other alternative would be increasing my Strength more, but I haven't been in the front as much in our current group. That would change if we split into two groups, but I would still probably get more mileage from Magic Control. Finesse was also still at 70, it could probably use a bit of help to better manage my 120 strength... but I think the best bet would be to put twenty points into Magic Control this time. I'll correct later if I need to, and I can still use my [Blade Waltz] spell to make up the difference in Finesse if I really need it.

I sighed and pulled up my status now that I was done looking over everything. I truncated it to just the stats and skills since everything else was a bit much to look at.

[Status]

Name: Lilith Baphomet

Race: Greater Succubus [Race Hidden - Displayed as Beastkin (Sheep)]

Gender: Female

Class: [Novice Magic Swordsman] Lv. 20

Level: 55

Stat Spread:

Strength: 120

Vitality: 110

Charisma: 10 (1010)

Luck: 20 (1020)

Finesse: 70

Magic Control: 120

Magic Force: 100 (224)

Speed: 70 (100)

Endurance: 30

Karmic Energy: 10000

Unallocated Stat points: 0

Skills:

Haggling Lv. 15

Swordsmanship Lv. 41

Illusion Magic Lv. 10

Light Magic Lv. 29

Light Manipulation Lv. 24

Uuna Riding Lv. 13

Linguistics Lv. 10

Ritual Magic Lv. 25

Drawing Lv. 23

Mana Sense Lv. 13

Luck Magic Lv. 15

Enhancement Magic lv. 18

Flying lv. 10

Intimidation lv. 1

Internal Mana Manipulation lv. 5

Cartography lv. 8

Ice Magic Lv. 6

Marksmanship Lv. 4

Pack Tactics Lv. 15

I stood up and stretched after looking over my status. I was pretty happy with the progress I had made since I last looked at it.

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