Modern Age Online

“Damn it, Dude. We asked you not to do that. You look like a floating head.” Jar-lock said trying to hide a smile.

Nearby Vivienne was making a disgusted face and Varlin was pointedly looking away. Kaleb just grinned before he ducked back into his lab. He quickly walked to his workbench and brought up the interface. Took him a few seconds to find the right settings but eventually he gave the three magic users a one-day pass to his lab.

The trio which were standing outside his garage, take a step back in shock. Kaleb assumed that the black void they normally saw, had vanished. Now the three could see straight into his lab. Kaleb gave a bright smile and a big wave as his friends surveyed his garage lab. Vivienne and Varlin wore the same underwhelmed look that Roy had when he first seen the lab. But, Jar-lock was studying the space with an intense gaze.

“So you are running a junkyard out of your garage?” Varlin joked.

Kaleb grinned before turning to Daivor who was still standing on the table. “That does it! Destroy his Foci.”

Daivor shot a wink up at Kaleb, showing he understood that Kaleb was joking. The Gnome walked off purposefully and picked a small bit of metal from the table. Varlin’s eyes bulged in shock and he rushed over to the table intent on stopping the small gnome. Kaleb placed himself in Varlin’s path, crossed his arms, and stared down at the Sorcerer with a mock glare.

“Oh… come on! It was a joke! No need to be hasty. I…” Varlin sputtered.

Kaleb couldn’t hold back his smile at his friend's antics. “Hahaha! I’m fucking with you, Varlin. We were just about to finish up your Foci.”

Varlin went through several expressions. From anger to confusion to consternation at Kaleb’s joke and eventually to joy. As Varlin glanced around Kaleb, search the workbench for his new Foci, Vivienne and Jar-lock walked over to the worktable. Kaleb twisted to grab Vivienne’s wand and found Daivor handing the foot-long black and white wand up to him. Kaleb grinned before turning back around and presenting the wand to Vivienne.

“Compliments of myself and Daivor. Made from an Ifrit bone and the skin from the beast’s heart.” Said Kaleb as pompously as he could.

Vivienne was taken aback at the gift before she reached for the wand. Kaleb saw the telltale signs of a player menu-checking as the Wizard looked over the stats of her new wand. He was about to direct Jar-lock toward his own armor they had passed in the driveway. But, Vivienne’s sudden scream of excitement interrupted his words.

“OH MY GOD! This is so cool!” Vivienne yelled before looking back up to the three men. “92% Mana Efficiency, most Wands in the in-game stores only go from 50% to 85%. But what’s this Mana Capacity?”

Kaleb felt an immense sense of pride as Vivienne gushed about his work. “Just like it says: it stores 30 MP that you can use it in an emergency. That stone in the hilt is a Mana Stone we got from the Ifrit’s heart.”

Kaleb held up one of the still purifying stones as he explained about them. He explained the process of creating the wand using his limited magic. He also told them about the damn things fighting back against his and Daivor’s magic. He ended by pointing out Jar-locks and Varlin’s half completed armor and Foci.

Vivienne was practically giddy as Kaleb explained how he crafted the wand with Daivor’s help. When he finished, she thanked him profusely. “Thank you so much. This is awesome.” Turning to Daivor she gave a curtsy. “And thank you, Master Gnome.”

Daivor looked surprised and being thanked but he took in stride, smiling. “Oh, you’re getting a dusting later, for sure.”

“Dude!” Kaleb said, looking at his Gnome Companion.

“What?!” Daivor said, sounding annoyed.

Kaleb just shook his head as Varlin asked his own question. “So what needs to be done with my Foci? Can I help in any way?”

Kaleb brought his attention back to the other two magic users in his garage. Looking down at Daivor for confirmation he asked. “Can he supply the Mana for his own Foci?”

Daivor grumbled something under his breath before responding. “It should attune the Foci better that way. But he can’t use his current Foci, he has to channel without the Foci.”

Kaleb explained the Gnome’s words and also mentioned about the Ifrit’s blood. “We were about to start when I heard my doorbell. So if you want to complete it, Varlin, go ahead. Careful though, Daivor intimated that the stone would explode with the Mana flow wasn’t steady.”

Varlin nodded absently as Daivor brought the real Foci forward for them to work on. Kaleb shook his head adding. “I’m serious, Varlin. Only person who blows shit up in my lab is me.”

Varlin gave a firmer nod, but Kaleb wasn’t convinced. Jar-lock placed a hand on Kaleb’s shoulder and steered him toward the open garage door.

“Come on, Professor. Show me my armor. They don’t need you being a helicopter lab assistant.”

Kaleb snapped his head around to the Warlock as Vivienne followed them out. “I’m no one’s lab assistant. I didn’t spend all those years at fake college to take orders from someone else.”

Jar-lock chuckled as he bent down to look at the pieces of leather armor. Vivienne was nearby aiming her wand left and right. The Wizard was twirling this way and that pretending to fire off spells. Kaleb briefly thought about their new Lair and if it had space for a shooting range or something. Remembering his new property made Kaleb ask his two friends.

“Did you guys come over to check what happened with the Lair?”

Jar-lock ran his hand over his armor as he answered. “That was one reason, yes. But we also had a quest and a few questions for you.”

Kaleb sighed. “I’m not doing any quest until I get all this stuff built. But I can answer questions.”

Jar-lock nodded but before he could ask his questions Varlin sauntered out of The Pit. In the center of his chest, attached to a leather necklace, was his new red-orange Foci. While the Sorcerer seemed ok at first glance, Kaleb saw Varlin’s damp collar and the sweat rolling down the side of his face. Daivor was riding on the Sorcerer’s shoulder and the Gnome shouted.

“Don’t let him fool you. His Mana Channeling without a Foci needs improvement. He was concentrating so hard, I thought he would burst a blood vessel.”

Kaleb hid a grin behind his hand as he asked Varlin. “So how are the stats?”

Varlin glanced at Daivor, hearing the Gnome speak but not knowing what he said. At Kaleb’s question he gave them a wide grin. “Mana Efficiency’s at 95%, but I don’t have a Mana Capacity stat. I guess that’s because the stone itself is the Foci.”

Daivor nodded as he added. “Yeah, you can’t store magic in it, if you are using it to Focus your magic.”

Kaleb relayed what Daivor had said to the others. Varlin nodded his acceptance as Vivienne asked. “So why do you look so happy? I mean, 95% is great but that can’t be it.”

Varlin smiled wider. “It isn’t. I get 30% more damage on Fire Spells.”

“Damn!” Said Kaleb

“Wow.” Jar-lock said still looking at his armor.

“That’s double mine!” Vivienne exclaimed.

“It’s probably because he didn’t get Mana Storage. Or because the Mana Stone is older.” Kaleb guessed.

“Older stones are more powerful.” Daivor interjected.

“Damn, I should have labeled them according to how deep I found them in the heart.” Kaleb complained after he explained his and Daivor’s theory.

A few seconds of silence passed as they were all in deep thought. Jar-lock stood suddenly and gestured at his armor.

“This seems dry already. What were you going to do next?”

Kaleb dragged himself out of his thoughts as he went to inspect the leather armor. “I planned on sanding the inside a little. Did you notice it’s a little coarse to the touch? That would make wearing it uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, that’s something I noticed. What’s with the two weird symbols on the bottom of the chest piece?” Jar-lock asked.

“Resizing and Protection Runes.” Kaleb said.

“That’s it?” Jar-lock asked.

Kaleb shrugged. “It’s all I could think of and I only have so much Mana.”

Jar-lock smiled at that and waved Kaleb back into the garage. “I think it’s time to teach you about Mana Sharing. Grab the armor.”

Kaleb twisted his head, interested in using other peoples Mana to help enchant things. It would speed the whole process up. As he picked up the pieces of armor and followed the Warlock, Vivienne asked a question.

“So you went with Enchanting as your Domain?”

Kaleb smiled wide, shaking his head. “Not quite.”

Kaleb, Varlin, and Vivienne followed Jar-lock back into the lab. Daivor riding along on Varlin’s shoulder. Kaleb could see Varlin and Vivienne were waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn’t Varlin gave a grunt of annoyance.

“Does this have anything with you suddenly being put on the Sorcerer’s General Watch List?”

Kaleb eye’s bulged. “You guys have a Watch List?!”

“Yeah. Don’t worry though, they rate you Blue. Which means to keep an eye on you if we see you. Yellow means to report on sight, Orange means we are to apprehend you, and Red means it’s open war on your ass.” Varlin explained.

Kaleb set Jar-lock’s armor down as he looked at Jar-lock and Vivienne. “What about you two? Any changes?”

Both shook their heads and Kaleb sighed loudly. “Well, that’s good to know at least.”

“What did you do?” Jar-lock asked.

“Well…” Kaleb started as he explained about the Jack-Mage.

As he went over the pros and cons of his new archetype, Kaleb rubbed a piece of sandpaper on the inside of Jar-lock’s leather armor. The others listened intently, Jar-lock and Vivienne seemed interested while Varlin almost looked horrified. After he finished explaining he continued rubbing down the inside of the Ifrit armor as he waited for their responses.

“That’s fucking nuts!” Varlin exclaimed.

“Is it?” Jar-lock asked. When Varlin gave him an incredulous look Jar-lock added. “I mean, it’s all up to him. No hand-holding, no skill trees, just whatever magic he can come up with good or bad.”

“But… But you make an enemy of the Magical Community.” Varlin complained.

Vivienne interrupted the Sorcerer. “Not really, I mean here in Austin the Wizards are researchers. So his Affinity with them went up. The Warlocks are hands off anyway so they probably don’t care. The only downside is the Sorcerers not liking you, and as I understand it your only problems came from that faction, anyway.”

Varlin sputtered as Kaleb thought of Diana Torero and his deal to sell any Magical creature corpses to her. He wondered if his decision would alter the deal with her. He shrugged his shoulders, deciding to deal with that if or when it happened. Bringing his attention back to his friends he said.

“Either way, that’s my story. Did you guys get a prompt for Jack-Mage when I explained it?”

The trio nodded. “Denied that shit as soon as it came up.” Varlin grumbled.

“I thought about it. But I like the skill trees.” Vivienne said sheepishly.

They all looked to Jar-lock who wore a pensive expression. “I downsized the window. I want to think about it a little more. Having access to all Domains of Magic is nothing to sneeze at.”

Kaleb smiled as he tossed a vambrace to Jar-lock. “That’s more like it! Now put that on and tell me what you think.”

Jar-lock slid his forearm in the leather arm guard and twisted his arm, testing the flexibility. As he did Kaleb had a thought.

“Bone plates.” Kaleb said drawing weird looks from the others except for Daivor who seemed to catch on.

“You’d need a strong adhesive.” The Gnome said, rubbing his beard.

Kaleb nodded excitedly. “But it could work?”

Daivor nodded back. “Yeah, the added defense wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at.”

Kaleb fell into thought again as he tried to list the places he could get a proper adhesive. He wasn’t sure if Nova Hardware would have something that strong. Plus, he would have to find a decent way to cut pieces off the Ifrit bones. He wondered if a hot wire cutter would work, or maybe even his laser pen cutter. Didn’t heat make bones brittle?

*Clap*

A loud fleshy slap resounded by Kaleb head, snapping him out of his thoughts. Looking up, he saw Jar-lock pulling his arms back. The big Warlock had clapped his hands near Kaleb’s ear to get his attention. Kaleb glanced around chagrined.

“Sorry.”

Jar-lock shook his head, amused. “It’s fine. Now what were you thinking about.”

Kaleb explained about adding bone plating to Jar-lock’s armor and the problems presented. Jar-lock nodded his head as Varlin and Vivienne looked on.

“You really got a head for this, don’t you?” Varlin asked.

Kaleb just shrugged. “I’ve always liked making stuff. Though truthfully, I’m not great at it IRL.”

“The joys of modern gaming.” Vivienne said.

“We should focus on one thing at a time though.” Jar-lock said tapping the front chest piece of his new armor.

The armor lay on the workbench where Kaleb had placed it. As Kaleb glanced at it he remembered that Jar-lock had wanted more Runes and would help Imprint them. He searched his messy worktable for the book of Runes and passed it over to the big guy.

“You’re right. Sorry, again. Look through that and see if there’s anything that jumps out at you.” Kaleb said.

Jar-lock quickly flicked through the book. “No need, I have one in mind.”

The Warlock found the page he was searching for and held it out to Kaleb. He tapped a Rune with his finger. Kaleb’s eyes went wide as he read the short blurb about the Rune. He took the book from Jar-lock and twisted it for Daivor to see.

“Would this fit?”

Daivor whistled. “Hmmmm, Elemantas. It’s gonna be a tight fit, but I think it might. It’s a complicated Rune though. Can you handle it or do you want to practice it for a bit?”

Kaleb blew out a breath. “Ahhhhh, I don’t think I wanna tackle this without practice.”

Daivor nodded and raised his arms, silently asking for a lift. Kaleb took his tiny companion and sat him on the worktable. Kaleb put back on his Enchantment Glove and turned to his friends, beaming.

“This will be a crap shoot. But it should be fun.”