Modern Age Online

Kaleb practiced the Elemantas Rune multiple times until the Enchanting Glove eventually stopped shocking him. The Rune was far more complicated then the others he had tried. The Rune was essentially a compass with representations of the four elements at the cardinal points. Each of the images were unnecessarily ornate. At least Kaleb felt they were.

As Kaleb worked Jar-lock and Vivienne spoke quietly between themselves. But Varlin, Hovered nearby watching him intently. Kaleb had almost forgotten that Varlin was also interested in Enchanting. As the Sorcerer hovered nearby, trying to not be obtrusive, Kaleb passed over another Enchanting Glove.

“Take a look at that and let me know how much you think it would sell for.”

Varlin picked up the strange looking device and inspected it. “Hmm. Not the best I’ve seen in the game stores. But it is still not bad. Pretty middle of the road.”

“I’ll put my foot down the middle of your road.” Daivor grumbled from nearby.

“So what do you think I could get for them?” Kaleb asked as he put the finishing touches on the gratuitously curly flame symbol.

“150, maybe 200 credits,” Varlin said before setting the glove down on the worktable. “Also depends where you sell them.”

Kaleb nodded as shook out a his fingers as he said. “Under-Town, they should do well there. At least I hope so.”

“That’s the underground city you were talking about the other day, right?” Jar-lock asked.

Kaleb nodded as he worked on the next elemental symbol. Why two swirling orbs equated to Wind, he didn’t know. But, he was sure he hated it. He also couldn’t figure out why Earth was represented by a circle with triangle in it. Sighing internally, he added.

“Yeah, I got a job fixing things for a bunch of space vampires tomorrow. I figured I could sell a few of the Enchanting Gloves while I’m down there. Maybe visit the Brute Clan near the Arena, too.”

“Every time I hear about all that shit you’ve been doing, I think I’m playing the game wrong.” Jar-lock said.

Kaleb smiled. “Dude, I’ve just been reacting. I hear a shout for help, I find Roy. I respond to your call for help in a park, and I get an Ifrit corpse. That sparked off all kinds of shit. I haven’t really had to go out of my way to find Super work. What has your experience been like?”

Jar-lock and the others looked thoughtful as they seemed to think about it. Kaleb went back to practicing the various images of the Elemantas. Vivienne was the first to give him an answer.

“Well I stopped an underground Magical Creature fighting league. Someone found a way to Magically store Magical Creatures and a bunch of sick bastards were using them to fight in gladiator-style fights.”

The others all nodded as Jar-lock added his own experience. “Yeah, I had to hunt down a bunch of cadavers some mad scientist reanimated.”

Kaleb grimaced. “Dude, I hate zombies.”

Jar-lock shook his head. “They weren’t really zombies. It was more like a squad of Frankenstein's. They were all super strong and partially mechanical. It wasn’t fun, I was hoping that Lightning Magic would put them down quickly, but it just super-charged them.”

“Neat.” Kaleb said looking up from his work toward Varlin.

The sorcerer seemed hesitant to mention his own adventures. But, the heavy stares from the others proved to be too much.

“Giant Ants.” Varlin said.

They all stared at him as Varlin squirmed uncomfortably.

“Giant…” Vivienne started.

“Ants.” Varlin finished, quickly explaining. “Some kid from one of the larger Houses cast an enlargement spell on a queen Ant and let it loose somewhere under her Ex-boyfriend’s house. We spent hours underground exterminating ants.”

“Wow!” Kaleb said going back to practicing the Earth symbol. “Bet that fight against the queen had to be epic.”

“Yeah… it…uh…probably will be.” Varlin said awkwardly

The garage fell silent as Varlin’s words slowly sunk in for everybody. They all turned to stare at Varlin, who was nervously running a hand through his hair. Jar-lock looked horrified as Vivienne seemed at a loss for words. Kaleb couldn’t blame her.

“So there is a Giant Ant Queen loose somewhere under Austin?” Kaleb asked setting his pen down and staring at Varlin.

Varlin put his hands out in a stop gesture. “The HLO has notified the city and teams of Supers are searching for her.”

“You know what type of Ants they were?” Jar-lock asked drawing a weird look from Varlin.

“Does it matter?” Varlin asked, confused.

Jar-lock got an anger look on his face as he bellowed. “Does it matter!? Some ant’s are nomadic, which means the queen is probably long gone. Some can have colonies of ants in the millions! Imagine a giant-sized fire ant biting you! The Trap Jaw ant can close it’s jaws at over 100 miles per hour, the damn thing can probably bite through a car if it gets big!”

Everyone stared a Jar-lock as the big man raved, almost hysterically about ants. Kaleb was impressed, the big guy knew his stuff when it came to the tiny insects. Finally it was Jar-lock’s Handler Curtis who calmed him down.

“Dude, calm yourself. The HLO is on it. The ant species is the Raspberry Crazy ant, okay? Farmer ants.”

Jar-lock seemed to calm slightly as he heard that, but he still voiced his concern. “They also eat small insects and vertebrates. Which include mammals!”

Curtis sighed loudly through the communicator. “We know. Luckily, we haven't had any reported deaths yet. But you should know: This species of ant is known for having multiple queens. So if this goes on too long we could be looking at a mass call to all Supers.”

Jar-lock was still breathing rough, but the others all nodded their heads. Kaleb gave Jar-lock a curious look before he changed the subject. “I’ve almost got this Rune down. You want to run me through how we share Mana.”

Varlin watched Jar-lock for a few seconds before he answered. “Uh, yeah, it’s actually pretty simple. Separate Magic users channel their Magic to one person and that person can use it how they wish. Basically the group shares a Mana pool. However, outside of trusted covens, circles, or groups physical contact is a must.”

“So I let you touch me and you give me Mana? Stranger Danger much?” Kaleb smiled up at Varlin.

“Ha!” Jar-lock barked as Vivienne covered a snort with her hand.

Varlin for his part frowned before an evil smile formed on his face. The Sorcerer moved behind Kaleb and started rubbing his shoulders. “Hey! I thought we were friends.” Varlin said softly into Kaleb’s ear.

Kaleb shook Varlin’s hands off of his shoulders chuckling. “Hahaha, Sure, sure, ya creep. Let me get this Rune down so then you can share your Mana with me.”

“Haha!” Vivienne broke out into laughter. “I’m sorry, but that still sounds dirty.”

Kaleb just shook his head as he took a deep breath and prepared to draw the rune on Jar-lock’s armor. He focused his Mana into his hand started to draw, started with the pointlessly curly fire image. As he drew Varlin hunched over his table watching intently. He carefully recreated the image on the skin to the best of his abilities and when he was almost done Jar-lock asked a question.

“I thought Imprinting didn’t need a rune.”

“It doesn’t, but drawing the Rune helps newbie Enchanters focus when Imprinting.” Varlin explained.

“Plus…” Kaleb said as he tried to maintain focus on his Mana control. “I don’t want to deal with the Mana Backlash if something goes wrong. This is a big ass Rune so the Mana involved is gonna be big too.”

“And it’s better to avoid that.” Vivienne finished for him.

Kaleb nodded his agreement and went back to drawing the Rune. Continuing his trend of going from hardest to easiest he tackled the Water symbol in the south position. Then the Wind in the west and the Earth in the east. Once he had completed drawing them out, he sat back in his seat and gave a long sigh. After resting for a few minutes more he waved the others over and stood.

“Okay, lets get this Rune down.”

The others all nodded as Kaleb placed his hand over the rune and mentally held the image of it in his mind. After drawing the image multiple times it came far easier. He focused on the intent of the Rune as Jar-lock, Varlin, and Vivienne all placed a hand on his back. He slowly felt energy seep into his back at the three points they were touching. His weariness disappeared as he was suddenly overflowing power.

He felt like he could run a marathon and there was a little part of him that wanted to keep this power and run amok. Tamping down that side of himself, Kaleb focused his own Mana into the raging pool of power inside him. Using everything he had, Kaleb forced the energy down into the Ifrit skin. Again, the skin’s red Mana came up to meet the kaleidoscope of Mana that Kaleb was forcing down into it.

Kaleb could see he own yellow Mana, as well as white, blue and green Mana also swirling around his hand. He briefly wondered whose was whose but he set that aside and refocused on image in his head. The Elemantas Rune was a tricky one because it acted as a conduit for channeling the Nature Magics. Once in place the wearer of the armor would find using the various elemental powers far easier.

Kaleb held steady over the armor as it tugged hungrily at his hand. As more Mana poured into the Rune, Kaleb realized he was nowhere near feeling tired. No signs of a headache either, he was just about to check his MP when the pull on his hand stopped and the area he was Imprinting glowed.

“Wow! That wasn’t too bad. Just 125 MP from me.” Jar-lock said.

“100 from me.” Added Vivienne.

“100.” Varlin said, moving over to inspect the rune.

Kaleb glanced at his own Mana before saying quizzically. “Only 25?”

Jar-lock looked thoughtful before he nodded. “It probably took a quarter of the Mana needed from each of us. So 350 Mana total.”

“Damn! The Protection Rune only needed 75!” Kaleb said.

“Well this is a stronger Rune.” Varlin mentioned as he inspected the Rune. “We do good work.”

Kaleb moved over to check then Rune before he realized something.

“Where’s Daivor?”