Syl

Chapter 76: Debuffs

While hunting for more spiders, I found a passageway with a highly sulfurous scent, which I figured was the pathway to the salamander. I decided to avoid it for now, as I wanted to experiment with more spiders and still needed to kill three more earth elementals. With some backtracking and alternate tunnels, I finally found another giant spider.

I trapped it within slime and force-fed it sleep gas until it eventually fell unconscious. What was interesting about it compared to my other afflictions so far was that it had a midway point that inflicted the [Fatigued] condition. I'd have to ask Luke if the guild had a lexicon of status conditions.

Now that I had a valuable test subject, I wanted to experiment with the Debuff spell construct. I picked Water Magic for my tests, as I worried both Fire and Corrosion would kill the spider if something went wrong. I didn't want to sound ungrateful, as the defense Debuff sounded extremely valuable, but I wanted to reduce magic resistance or perhaps even affliction resistance. Working with my cores, I started dismantling the spell construct for [Erode].

I spent hours trying to combine the Debuff construct with water mana, and I had to reapply sleep poison to the spider to refresh the dwindling duration multiple times. One thing Dewi had not told me about this was that magical backlash sucked big time. When the spell failed to form, it would not only waste the mana expended entirely but cause it to explode within my core violently. The damage was primarily superficial, likely due to the backlash not being too significant, but the mental strain was taking its toll. I borrowed the orc trait temporarily, but mental damage, or whatever this was, seemed to ignore their pain nullification.

During my hours of spell modification, two more giant spiders came to investigate one by one. The hours of silence and lack of explosions must have made them feel safe to escape whatever hole they crawled into. At least it wasn't much effort to capture them, and now I had a backup in case my first spider met an untimely demise.

Between my tinkering of the spell, I would also cast [Erode] unmodified to examine the spell a little closer and hope to find some hidden insight. Finally, all my trial and error paid off, and I had a new Water Debuff. I held the formed spell in place and examined its construct proudly, and all the corrosion patterns were successfully rewritten with water mana. I thoroughly memorized the spell pattern before casting it on one of the spiders, and a new Debuff appeared.

'Yes!' I cheered before I was flooded with notifications.

Before I looked over my new spell, I cast [Permeable] again on another spider and cheered at my success. I'd go as far as to say this was my very first official custom spell and not just an enhancement or customization of an existing spell. I was absolutely giddy as I looked over [Torrent]; it seemed simple in execution and was a large burst of concussive Water. I cast the spell against one of my [Permeable] spiders and watched its body launch against the cavern wall, where it splatted into its untimely demise. With the spell affecting such a large area, its intended use was likely to get enemies away rather than deal damage.

'Perhaps I could focus it down and concentrate it into a more offensive use.' I pondered, 'Although I want to finish experimenting with my debuffs before I get sidetracked with customizing another spell.'

I cleaned up the remains of the splattered spider before I started my next batch of spell tinkering. I was replacing it with Fire this time, and my tinkering took less than half the time as my first spell. The reason was that, in my first approach, I discovered that I couldn't just replace the entire pattern with Water, as parts of the pattern were the Debuff portion. But now I could start tinkering with [Permeable] instead of [Erode] and focus on replacing the Water with Fire.

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Once again, I examined the completed spell carefully before I cast it. Compared to the Water one, its formation had some very minor adjustments. It was more complex than simple find-and-replace, much to my disappointment. The ease of making the required minor corrections was likely thanks to my latest level in [Mana Manipulation]. I cast the spell and grinned with glee at the new Debuff.

I noticed the Debuff time was different, perhaps due to the extra level I had gained in [Affliction Mastery]. I cast [Permeable] to see its time.

I momentarily stared at the Debuff in confusion when I realized I had also gained a level in [Water Magic]. I concluded that the duration was my combined level of [Water Magic] plus [Afflicton Mastery], while the strength of the Debuff was entirely on the magic portion unless I boosted it. With that out of the way, I cast [Fire Arrow] at the Debuffed spider and watched it rapidly burn up far faster than any of the previous spiders.

The last thing I wanted to Debuff was resistance to ailments, which was considerably more difficult than expected as I needed to somehow identify the poison part of the Corrosion Mana in the [Poison Mist] spell. Even assisted by my [Sub-Cores], it felt complicated for some reason, but now I was trying to tinker with intermediate magic. The magical backlash was immense, and after three failed attempts with no further progress, I decided to shelve it for now. Perhaps a higher level of [Mana Sight], [Mana Manipulation], or both would let me more easily identify the individual components of the Corrosion Mana.

Working with Fire or Water mana was much simpler in comparison, which was explained by their basic affinity types. As if proving a point, I had successfully recreated a fire whip spell in only three attempts. I cast [Flammable] on the spider and lashed it with the burning whip; with a fiery crack, the spider perished, its body also rapidly burning up. Double dipping on their weakness by applying [Flammable] certainly felt like cheating.

Your afflictions can be affected by [Sneak Attack], bypassing resistances based on the skill level.

If the resistance is significantly overcome, a greater contagion will be inflicted.

Your afflictions have a chance to not notify their target based on your highest stealth-related trait or skill.

This skill has no levels.>

'Oh... Right. That also explains why the spiders died so easily. I forgot about [Sneak Attack]. This skill sounds great, fitting with the whole magical assassin image.'

'I'm wondering if I'm using my skill points correctly. Perhaps I should consider asking Luke or maybe Whitney. I've never tried using points to level up a skill.'

'No! Damn, that's expensive...'

I tried a few different skills, and the cost scaled directly, which was horrifying. I definitely would need to ask someone about this. Interestingly, when I tried to upgrade [Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6], I got an error message.

'I guess I don't have to worry about that with traits since I have [Mana Slime] at ten. Not that I think I'd ever want to use trait points on buying upgrades.'

There were things I still wanted to experiment with, but I was not feeling great mentally from all the magical backlash. I actually considered hiding in a hole and taking a nap. I was concerned that I could be blamed if someone came looking for me or the salamander left the mines. I continued through the remains of the spider tunnel, casting [Flammable] into [Fire Arrow] to swiftly deal with any arachnids I came across.

The effects of [Subtle Afflictions] were remarkably noticeable, as none of the spiders noticed when I debuffed them. The [Sneak Attack] bonus seemed to be applying a fifty percent bonus to my affliction.

If I empowered the spell, which also boosted it by half, and combined it with [Sneak Attack], I could effectively double it.

Stacking multiple effects together seemed incredible, and I wondered if it could go beyond one hundred percent. Perhaps doing so would allow things to go through immunities? It was definitely a thought worth exploring once I had more levels.

Much to my disappointment, I couldn't find any more Bronze-ranked spiders, so I didn't gain a level when I ran out of the multi-legged nuisance to eradicate. I had completed my spider quota a while ago, but I was beginning to worry because I still needed to kill three more rock elementals, and I couldn't find any. I consulted my map, but the only pathway left was towards the smell of sulfur and likely the salamander.

'Well, hopefully, they are down there. They could also be above ground; the quest just says they are in the area.'