Memories of Earth had faded during Lukas’s sixty-odd years on the Realm of Greater Beings. Core memories remained, but the people in them had blurred. Names, roles, and emotions lingered, but faces and voices had left long ago.

Now, as his experiences of the Realm of Greater Beings slowly left him, everything from his first twenty years came rushing back. It was a bittersweet experience. He treasured memories of the few friends and loved ones he had. However, the knowledge of them all being long dead stung. He missed them during his early days following the first transmigration, but he had learned to cope over the years.

Grief. It was a silly thing. Lukas didn’t like it. So, he pushed it all down and focused on the task at hand.

“All mages must master three fundamental techniques to become efficient combat casters. Shaping grants, attacks, and defenses form. Manipulation comes with control and finesse. Emission is where mages turn when they want raw power and range.”

Neither Esther nor Penelope had taught him Emission. They had mentioned the technique in passing but did not elaborate. It seemed Emission mostly focused on pumping energy into a physical or elemental projectile and then launching it at a target. Lukas imagined it was how Penelope’s fiery projectiles function. It wouldn’t surprise him if she first compressed and shaped the flames and then used manipulation to rotate the conjuration before shooting it using emission.

Lukas didn’t have enough magic or mental fortitude to assault his enemies with raw power. He had to rely on his mastery of the fundamentals to make the most out of his arsenal.

First, he ripped a scrap from Shade’s Mantle. Shaping helped twist and stretch it into a six-inch-long needle. After hardening the shadows into steel, Lukas manipulated the creation to make it spin rapidly. The rotations pulled in all additional scraps he added, saving him additional effort and drain. He only had to invest magic to harden the pieces. The projectile doubled in length and also gained girth. It seemed to vibrate as energy levels increased.

It took considerable effort to hold the bolt steady. It wobbled violently, threatening to fly off on its own. Instead of setting the projectile free, he shaped the energy threatening to break free. He created a funnel near the rear for the excess magic to fly free. A final bit of manipulation helped him correct the creation’s angle and give it a final push. The bits he had picked up from his copied texts helped add additional power.

The Shadowsteel bolt shot forth, screeching, as the wind caught on the uneven ridges and ripples. It didn’t remain steady and true. The projectile missed the target, striking the wall just to its left, cracking the surface and digging in a couple of inches.

Kwame whistled. “Far more power than what one would expect of a tier-two. I’d pull back if I were you. Prioritize finesse and precision.”

“I guessed as much. It's far too loud as well.” Lukas sighed. “The base six-inch version is much smoother and far quieter. I wouldn’t want to add Silencing Shadows to the bolt. It would only increase the cost and strain.”

“Keep the spell cheap. Aim it well. Make it second nature and easy to put together so you can fire more.” The quartermaster fell silent as Lukas attempted to call the projectile back, but it was well outside of his arcane range. “Or, you could not fire them at all. Start with a couple and manipulate them around yourself. Turn them into mid-range weapons, ensuring nothing gets close.”

“Good call. Maybe I should save the tethers for close-range defense.”

Lukas tried again. He only created a spinning six-inch needle. It didn’t wobble and threaten to break free of his control. There wasn’t any excess energy to funnel and use for propulsion either. Instead, Lukas burned magic to push the bolt. “Frar. Bryna.” It flew forth faster than the previous version and didn’t make any sound.

The projectile struck the target. It wasn’t a bullseye, but Lukas didn’t miss or strike too close to the edge. The Shadowsteel needle shot through the bullseye and dug three inches into the wall. There weren’t as many cracks, and the few that appeared weren’t as large.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“You’re right,” Lukas said. “This is far better. It also costs only two-thirds of the empowered version. Being cheaper and simpler also leaves more room for modifications.”

Kwame shrugged. “I can only provide practical ideas for battle. Ranged attack and magic aren’t my specialty. Confirm with your teachers, but I think this is far better than the other options.”

Lukas walked toward the wall, mentally tugging on the projectiles. He kept going until they responded. They started wobbling when he was approximately twenty feet away. The larger of the pair dissolved once free of the wall, and most of it had already crumbled and faded out of existence. Meanwhile, the smaller needle returned to Lukas for reuse.

“Making the needle dance with the sharpness and haste spells attached to it can be threatening enough,” Kwame stated. “Add your sword and spear skills to the mix, and you’ll be a terrifying threat at all ranges. Speaking of.” Kwame nodded at the one-handed mace that hung from Lukas’s hip. It had replaced the Three-Stage Spear. “Why not train your tier-two shard ability with that beauty? Cover your weaknesses.”

“In all honesty, melee combat is supposed to be a last resort for me,” Lukas replied. “Although.” He paused, drawing the mace. Lukas had Shade’s Mantle flow down his arm and up the weapon’s shaft. He wrapped the metal in black and slowly started solidifying shadows from the base. The shaft grew, gaining a couple of inches. He also made the flanges longer. “No reason why I can’t use Shadowsteel to increase my reach.”

“And shouldn’t Alter Metal Mass work with Shadowsteel?”

“It does and is what I had in mind. The more metal something has, the more I can alter its weight.”

It took a few minutes of adjusting the Shadowsteel’s distribution to balance the weapon at neutral mass. He could just about comfortably handle the weight, but even then, during practice swings, it felt like he was losing control. He could imagine a vanguard clone making the most of such shaping and adding extensions, spikes, or more to the weapon, increasing its potency. Lukas moved the mass slider to its lowest point. The speed with which he moved the bulky two-handed weapon almost felt comical.

Under Kwame’s instruction, he took it to a nearby training dummy and struck it a handful of times. The lowered mass didn’t change how much force he could exert. Reach. Hard strikes. It wasn’t ideal but not the worst. He knocked the dummy around, which would likely break a handful of bones. He attempted to change the mace’s mass just before the moment of striking. The weight almost pulled him off balance every time. If it were a real fight, his opponents would’ve surely taken advantage of the wide openings.

In the end, he settled for working with gravity and only moved the mass slider during a two-handed down swing. The mace ripped through the dummy, crushing its abdomen, lower half, and denting the iron-wood stake that held it up. Lukas was sure that another strike would be enough to tear through it. Altering his own mass for more speed or strength would’ve allowed him to achieve the feat in a single strike.

“The deep gods have mercy.” Kwame whistled. “With that kind of power, I’d fight up close. It's so much more fun.”

Hope the clones get the power to use shard abilities soon. Alter Metal Mass would otherwise pretty much go to waste. Steel Weave is great, but not nearly enough.

Between Shade’s Mantle, Shadowsteel, Steel Weave, and Alter Metal Mass, he could foresee his non-mage clones turning into a terrifying threat. Then there was Spellweaver. Any mage or shadow-specialized clone armed with the shard ability would make for a potent battlefield companion.

“Why not be good at both?” Lukas asked. “Everything I’ve learned thus far has been in the pursuit of learning magic. Everything you taught me, all the training, it was so I could get my magic shard and make the most of it.”

“I don’t know how you find the time. Your progress in melee combat. The rapid arcane development. Everything you and your brother accomplished in so little time—my condolences, by the way. We’ve been scratching our heads thinking about how you pulled all of that off. It’s hard to believe and even harder to understand.”

Lukas fell silent. He withdrew all shadows, returning the mace to normal. “We pushed ourselves too hard for far too long. It's why all of this happened. We took too many risks down there. Elvis did what he did so Penelop and I—”

“Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t ever do that to yourself. It’s not your fault.” Kwame sighed, placing a hand on Lukas’s shoulder. “This is part of the job. Don’t make your brother’s noble sacrifice your fault. What you did helped stop the Elder Wyrmkin and uncover their plot. Be proud of what you and your brother did. The city of Iskander might only publicly recognize the Cold Fire Sorcerer for the victory, but everyone knows that you also had a hand in it.”

If only you knew.