“I stopped by to answer any such questions you might have about such things, Master Harlune,” I replied firmly. “I trust your first lessons have not been too basic for you?”

  He actually leaned forward eagerly at me, his much-brighter eyes lighting up with his intensity. “I devoured the beginner primer, Lady Magos,” he admitted candidly. “I may have somewhat discomfited some of my erstwhile instructors, as some of them were secondary students of my own in the past, and they practice the traditions of Isparian magic that I passed to them.”

  “Your raw capabilities are indeed considerably higher than a basic apprentice, but the key part of the magic is, as ever, starting at the proper foundation. Leap ahead, and you will only make things harder and harder on yourself,” I chided him. “You are doubtless already attempting to devise a ladder of potential Infusions to the Platinum tier, like every other student who is introduced to the basic concepts of Typeless Magic, yes?”

  His mouth worked like a child caught in the cookie jar. A bit disgruntled, he finally sat back, a bit defeated. “I see I am more predictable than I thought…”

  “Geniuses and experienced Casters usually are. Egos thinking they are better than the methods and methodologies of the countless geniuses who have tried every conceivable way to break, leapfrog, or do an end run around the System. Sometimes they found something new, and then it was added to the System to expand it, and it became ever harder, ever more difficult to improve, circumvent, or shortcut the System… until you reach the place it is at today, where there is almost nothing to be improved on.”

  I met his glowing eyes with my Silver ones, unafraid of his experience or intellect. “I myself would doubtless master your Empyrean magicks with a speed you would probably find almost terrifying.”

  His mouth opened to challenge me, refute me, and I Sang one Note.

  Any words he was about to say choked and died as the manafield reverberated around us, and he felt my iron-hard chokehold settle on the manafield all around us.

  My Caster Level had considerably more raw power behind it than his own, even if did not bear the same subtleties and elegance that his did.

  He was silent for a long minute as I let the Note fade, studying me very intently indeed. He couldn’t look into my mind at all, but I’d basically just flared my Aura to him, and he was now plenty aware of the incredible depth and intensity of it.

  His own Aura had some higher Height, given he was basically the equivalent of a Twenty and I was a mere Fourteen in comparison, but it was like looking at a slender tower, and next to it was a massive pyramid, shorter but immeasurably more dangerous and stable.

  “How much exposure have you had to Empyrean teachings, Lady Magos?” he asked softly, consideration in his voice.

  “I have examined multiple Empyrean artifacts and mana-reinforced constructions. I possess the power but not the raw subtlety or technique yet to imitate them. I have witnessed the power of the Harbinger, and seen how to draw on Elemental energies beyond the Isparian limit. I have seen Candeth Martine manipulate his virindi-derived energies to call on planar fluctuations High and Low to work his magicks, as well as seen the virindi alterations to the Ampherelion Vault.

  “I saw and can imitate the very spells that Xunidara employed during our rescue of you, despite her employing what might be considered proprietary methods and energies that do not follow standard Isparian styles.

  “I have not had anything remotely resembling a true teacher of actual Empyrean methods and techniques, only seeing the end results of their magicks, Master Harlune.”

  He sighed deeply after I finished. “Those I have spoken with have only the most glowing regard for you, even when it is tinged with envy and personal desires, which is likely even more sincere than their words. When you instruct them, you make the maddeningly complex seem simple, and the depths of the magic you open to them seem to have no limits.”

  “The Matrix is very different in how you may ascend to heights of power than the Empyrean, but it is no less powerful at the high end, Master Harlune,” I informed him. “There are multiple roads to getting there within its System, but they are valid both independently and together.”

  “And you are a master of those Paths woven together.” His fingers intertwined symbolically.

  “I am a Master Theurge of the Arcane paths, yes, if not a Sevenfold Master, which does not seem possible here.”

  He silently repeated those titles to himself, nodding slightly. “I have but one question, then.” I inclined my head slightly. “The Tyranny of Rep Counts?” he asked archly, challenging me with his irritation and distaste for the requirements to grind magic.

  “One of the most loathed but most inescapable aspects of the System,” I admitted without the slightest hesitation. “There have been many, many attempts to find a better methodology, from spells to accelerate comprehension, Rituals to shortcut the counts, or pure raw intellectual ability, Talents, or Feats to reduce the need for Rep Counts. Surely if I possess intellectual ability to rival the gods I need not engage in such base grinding, yes?”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  My tone rather erased any hope from his expression.

  “No other methods really worked. The closest that we have come is a Siege Joint Rep Count Mastery, where you can partner with another who also has extremely advanced Siegecasting Mastery and together you can jointly Cast and Counter one another to accelerate the Sieging Rep Counts together. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help individual Rep Counts, nor has a method for Metas, pure Spells, or Reserve Casting been discovered. The Sieging Method itself takes over sixty thousand joint Rep Counts to take to full potency of counting both your partner’s Sieging and your own at the same time.”

  He sat back, thinking. “The number of repetitions required for broad Mastery would take years,” he noted to me.

  “I can do basic math, Master Harlune, as can the many, many mages who came before me. We all have expressions like you have right now when we discover the facts. We all want to skip them, circumvent them, shorten them.

  “The Tyranny of Rep Counts sits on its iron throne and has laughed at us all.”

  He grunted, not wanting to believe it, but he’d find out on his own. Everyone wanted to short-cut the system.

  “You have a great advantage over a younger mage in that your ability to focus and concentrate is leagues above them, and that is a key requirement of Rep Counts, particularly emulation.

  “If you fine-tune your magical vision, you will see I am paying homage to the Tyranny of Rep Counts right now, and do so consistently whenever it seems I am not active Casting.”

  He blinked, then stared at my fingers, then around me at wisps of magic few people would be able to sense and see, staring narrowly at them. “You are… emulating the Casting of spells?” he asked hesitantly, watching the threads of magic build, then dissipate before they could truly take form. As if bringing a spell together, then releasing it before it could take shape.

  “Yes. It takes extraordinary control to do so successfully, basically false Castings of a spell. It actually requires even more rigor than Casting a spell, because if you do it wrong, you actually spend the Valences, or waste them entirely. You have to weave the magic precisely, maintain absolute mana control, and be utterly ready to fully empower it at every moment, not just spinning threads. The juxtaposition of discipline allows Fauxcasting to qualify as Rep Counts.

  “It’s just not something a beginner mage can do. You have to be at least a Ten to even start on the simpler spells with the methods, and have a lot of experience across the multiple forms of Rep Counts to proceed.

  “It doesn’t free you from the Tyranny of the Counts, but it does release you from the Rule of Valences below them.”

  He took a long, deep breath. “Can an Empyrean Mana Pool be used for such things?” he asked reasonably.

  “I cannot use my Isparian pool for such matters. Indeed, Valence spells Cast out of a Mana Pool or re-infused by free mana do not Count at all.”

  He considered my point in silence, thinking about a lot of numbers. “Does the Tyranny apply to true Isparian Magic?” he asked after a moment of thought.

  “No,” I said definitively. “There are multiple Casters who have attempted to satisfy the Counts demand with basic War spells, among others, while others have launched tens of thousands of key spells over their past careers.

  “The Isparian magical structure is much freer and flowing than the Valence structure. It is why Valences represent so much more raw mana than a Pool does, and why their power scales so much more freely than Isparian magic does. If you like a profound reason, Isparian Magic is tilted towards the free-wheeling style of Chaos, and Valence Magic blends in considerably more Law. Valance Magic thus has both structure and versatility, while Isparian Magic tends to be much less flexible in execution.”

  “I saw some of the basic spells,” he admitted, “and then displays of the Metas that could be attached to others.” He paused in consideration. “Empyrean Magic treats spells very differently based on the Elements they draw on. Your Matrix Magic considers such things interchangeable, like exchanging a gear of silver for gold in and out of a clockwork.”

  “That is correct.”

  “And Creature Magic, with all of its Buffing power and versatility to enhance or cripple Stats and Skills… is basically two spells, which scale by level, and are Cast positively or negatively, in your System.”

  “That is also correct,” I confirmed.

  “And… all of Isparian War Magic could be condensed down to exactly one spell, with the appropriate Metas, scaled by Tier.”

  I nodded again. “That is also true. The benefits of Law and manipulating the structures of a spell, whereas the Isparian System’s focus is on managing the mana that supplies those spells, not the spells themselves.”

  He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “You know that makes a tremendous mockery of the magic I have devoted my entire life to learning, do you not?”

  “Irrelevant, Master Harlune.” That popped his glowing eyes back open. “It restores the wonder of magic to you. I think that is worth a moment of disgruntlement as you walk down a new and wonderful world, even if it takes some time to reach the lofty heights you are used to standing alone upon?”

  Despite his irritation, he could not fight back a slight smile as he regarded me. “The… more whimsical uses of the magic did catch my eye,” he admitted with false reluctance.

  “The Hedge Magic is always what draws in the good men and innocent souls. Those hungry for power want the spells of war and conflict, to heal damage and to inflict it, to protect themselves and harm others.

  “Summoning a flower on command.” I snapped my fingers, and a gorgeous red and gold rose in full bloom grew and unfolded in my fingers. “Making minor illusions on command to stress your points.” Holos popped up around my hand, showing a score of tulips, irises, lotuses, orchids, and other gorgeous flowers there. “Casually being able to change the color of your walls today.” I waved at the side wall, and it changed from a neutral off-white to a manly warm brown wooden pattern. “Being protected from the rain. Cleaning your clothes instantly. Washing the dishes and putting them away. Cutting the grass, of all things…

  “Great mages sneer at such things, but those are the wonderful little things that make magic great. A spell to make a farmer’s field verdant and bountiful is worth far more than a spell that reduces it to a charred ruin, but the egotistical Casters will seldom want to acknowledge such basic truth in their pursuit of power.”

  ============================

  For those who would like to support me and my daily updates, my Patreon Link is at:

   Ebook Series: The original Power of Ten: The First Day, The First Week, and finally The First Month, Vol Five and Six!