Layman
Layman landed in the middle of the street with a thump as the ground puffed up dust. Lines along the inside of his being lit up purple as the black armour and axe he had glowed darkly with violet light and vanished. He slackened his being so it wouldn't be in a humanoid shape and it reverted back to its mass of jelly, he oozed quickly along the street, passersby, minotaurs, goblins, orcs, fiends, giantkin and a whole host of other races passed him by, bowing to their king. He, of course, had no eyes to see with instead making use of a sonar-like magic sense that allowed him to see the world around him. He made his way to the castle, a large structure made from polished obsidian and hardened by magic. At the castle, outside its front doors, was a line of monsters.
"My Liege." The monsters dropped to one knee as he came up to them, red mass of slime oozing up the street.
"Greetings." He reverberated, a sound coming out, close enough to speech to be understandable.
"We have been waiting for you to return, your majesty, there's talk of an incursion from Helios, a Elvish garrison was spotted over Highmarch hill." A minotaur in red armour stepped forth saying.
"Well, then we'll discuss it further inside." The slime opened the large, blackwood doors with a flash of light from some lines inside of its mass, the doors swung open as expected.
Layman came to rest atop his throne, sinking into a pile of jelly at rested comfortably on the seat. His general, the minotaur in red armour, Molkoh, kneeled low on the ground beneath the throne.
"My Liege."
"Molkoh, tell me more about this garrison." The slime said, body vibrating to produce the sound.
"A scout spotted them over the hill," the minotaur stood. "There was roughly twenty adventurers, each estimated, above level thirty."
"Have they shown any hostile intent?"
"Not yet, they were heard talking of invading the 'monster city' though." The minotaur admitted.
"I see, have you attempted to speak with them?"
"No?"
"Well do so, invite them into our city and lead them to me. Guard them and if they attempt to slay any of us, kill them."
"Understood." The minotaur stood and left.
--
Yolen
The next few days were spent wreaking havoc in dungeons, low level and high, Fulcrum and I tore through them until they took us no more than an hour to do each one.
My level shot up, as did my skill in using my arcane form, I also learnt many things about the source, for instance, I could create a gateway into it through the world and I could make it flow along with time. I quickly reached level five hundred and saw very few new skills along the way, none in fact. I did get one then however.
"Woah, a new skill." I breathed, hefting my giant warhammer over my shoulder.
"Really? Wow." Fulcrum came across, squadron of remnants behind him, he had some of the rest collecting gems.
"Yeah, level five hundred, look forward to it." I joked, pulling up the screen.
SPELL CREATION - LVL MAX
AS THE OWNER OF THE SOURCE, YOU CAN SHAPE MAGIC TO YOUR WILL AND TEACH YOUR CREATIONS TO OTHERS.
MANA COST - VARIOUS
"So, what can you do?" Fulcrum asked with interest.
"I, I can create spells?" I was slightly confused as to the meaning, I'd have to make incantations?
"Can't you do that already?" He said, misunderstanding.
"No, I mean, I can create ones that other Spellcasters can learn."
"Oh, hold on, teach me then." He held out his hands as if I would give him the spell.
"Give me a second then." I turned away and pictured my regular energy beam spell. I activated the new skill, I didn't really know how but I just reinforced the spell. "Ookay.. that should do it I guess." The knowledge of how to use the spell filled my head. I turned back to Fulcrum and placed a hand on his shoulder, transfering the temporary knowledge. It flooded out of my head and Fulcrum's eyes widened.
"Woah.." he breathed. Then frowned. "How am I supposed to use this spell? It costs over a million points to use."
I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, I forgot we had leveled so much." He laughed slightly, he was well past level four hundred and his intelligence score was just under double mine now so he had more than enough MP to go around.
"Do you want to try it out?" I asked.
"Sure, it doesn't have a name though."
"Doesn't it?" I looked at his stats, the spell showed up as a skill but I realised that that section was a duel section of skills and spells. The spell itself didn't have a name, so I named it in my head, as soon as I did so, the question marks on the name changed to a word. CERO.
"How'd you do that?" Fulcrum asked in astonishment.
"I named the spell, that means it is that universally, Cero. Has a good ring to it." I grinned. "Now give it a go, man. Point it at that wall." I stepped back, indicating the wall of the dungeon boss room.
Fulcrum nodded, stood at the ready, with an arm up and the other bracing it, he focused and a ball of golden light coalleced a few inches in front of his palm. It then burst forwards with a blast of energy, melting the wall, sending cracks along the stonework with the force of the blast. The light was so bright from the beam that it lit the room up gold. It brought to my attention that the room must light up immensely when I do the spell, lighting white mid fight, it must look cool.
The beam stopped and Fulcrum and I laughed stupidly at the crater in the wall he had just made.
Later that day, we set off on our separate ways, Fulcrum with mountains of gems to trade in and I, off to another country to assault their dungeons. He rode a remnant of a dragon we faced off into the distance as I watched and I activated my arcane form, spreading myself thin. I could see most of the country and focused on traveling east, I had a stop to make at the monster Nation of Altheron first.
The landscape rushed by and I quickly covered a small city made almost entirely from black crystal. I could feel the mana coming off of the material as it reinforced the buildings. In the streets, there were many monsters, orcs, minotaurs, goblins, you name it and it was probably there, milling around like humans. There was a distinct lack of anything too epic, there were no boss sized monsters and there were no elementals or celestial beings like me, or infernal, like me. I still didn't quite know where I fell in there.
I coalleced in the opening to the castle-like building, there was a line of monsters outside, waiting to get in. I coalleced at the back of the line. The monster in front of me jumped and beared it's fangs, it was a goblin of some sort and it scuttled away. I quickly turned back into flesh and bone. It felt odd, wrong even to be made from that.. I pushed the thought out of my head until I quickly grasped onto it again. The monsters around were looking increasingly hostile now, I entered the source.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I relaxed on a chair that formed out of a crystal. This body was different somehow, I knew that, I made a dagger.
"This better be right." I muttered to myself as I brought the knife to my hand and sliced across the palm.
No blood came out, instead, the part where a gash should've been had transformed, broken apart into what I was actually made of. It transformed into pure mana, dark and concentrated. I knew it, this body was actually made from mana, and yet it had colour to it.
"I'm an idiot, it's an illusion." I reprimanded myself for my idiocy, just because I hadn't used mana to make an illusion, didn't mean that I wasn't a thing that could happen, illusionist was one of the job options after all. I rapidly shaped pockets of mana into other forms, making it so they only represented the image, then making them emit the sounds. Then I made them substantial, so they were effectively the real deal, just made from magic instead. I'd cracked it.
I quickly returned to the world and focused immensely as the monsters around me in the city made of black crystal beared their fangs at my form. I then activated arcane form and created a body about me that was a skeleton in the outfit that I wore in the source. I felt my skeletal face and looked at the sky inconspicuously. The monsters about me relaxed a bit but still kept an eye on me.
"Hey." A gruff voice behind me said. I turned to look at it. It was a massive minotaur with red plate armour on, I knew I was tall for a humanoid, about six, four. This minotaur was so huge that I wouldn't have been able to touch it's chin even if I jumped up a normal height.
"Hello." I bowed a bit to the minotaur.
"When did you arrive in the city, undead?" It asked.
"A few minutes ago. Is there a problem?" I asked, tilting my skull to one side.