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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 21:37:06 GMT -6
... But then again, maybe there was also a means of using dowsing to locate minerals. He felt like he might have read about something like that once, but it hadn't been useful to him, and so his memory of it wasn't very clear.
At any rate, he didn't put much stock in it. It wasn't a true form of magic, and it didn't seem to be a true form of science either.
After a moment's pause, the motion of Rhys's tendrils changed, and they began moving with more purpose -- aligning themselves one way, and then realigning, until they narrowed something down. {This way,} the Faeron announced. {It's close! I don't know what it is though.}
Noa shrugged. "As long as it's a gem," he said, though the more valuable stones were obviously to be preferred. But he knew his chances of finding those here weren't terribly high, and had already resigned himself to that.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 21:51:20 GMT -6
They could both tell it wasn't a magical crystal -- or else Noa would have been the one to sense it, even through his earlier disorientation. Though admittedly it was a little more difficult to do than it used to be. A crystal was, in the grand scheme of things, only a pinprick of magical energy. These days, with the amount of nodes that Noa had on his person at all times... It was not unlike light pollution making the stars seem dimmer and fewer in number in the night sky. It was harder to sense anything else through the haze of their magical energies.
Power had a price, but he hadn't anticipated that this would be one of them. Sensing magical crystals was one thing, but if it meant he didn't sense another mage in time, that could spell trouble for him. His reputation and beasts only provided so much protection.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 22:01:34 GMT -6
This was something his family had stressed too, though he hadn't really understood it until now, when he was on his own: one's last line of defense is always oneself. And if he couldn't sense danger... Well, this was one of those things where he couldn't really compensate it with a trained beast either. Magic was the purview of the spoken races, barring a very few creatures, and even then, he hadn't ever met one with the same ability to sense the presence of it in others.
He walked slowly through the tunnel, with an eye to what Rhys was doing, and where the Faeron was looking. It actually didn't take them long to pass the spot that Rhys must have sensed. {Here,} Rhys said. {It's not deep. If you just dig... Hmm... Ah, how about here?} His tendrils wiggled a little more, then he hovered and pointed out a spot.
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Post by Jack on Jun 14, 2022 13:17:06 GMT -6
Hey look, you found some ore!
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 14:47:58 GMT -6
Noa considered the spot, and then Rhys, and frowned slightly, inclining his head.
"You know, I read somewhere once that familiars can imbue their own bodies with light. Have you ever tried it?" he said.
Rhys affirmed that he hadn't. Noa wasn't surprised. He hadn't worked extensively with Rhys on his familiar magic; his interest in his familiar's abilities went only as far as Rhys's ability to heal him, and later, in Rhys being able to share some of his magical energies with Noa when Noa's nodes were tapped dry. To be fair, a lot of the spells that were spacific to familiar magic weren't all that useful. Rhys wasn't ever going to be Noa's first choice for a combatant, and he had telepathy already, so there was no need to grant it to him or give him the ability to speak. But if he could act as a light source, that would be useful here.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 14:51:17 GMT -6
It was especially true of the times when Rhys was already serving as Noa's gem-finding companion, since there would be no gargoyle to do the digging on his behalf. And if Noa was to use tools, then he preferred to have both his hands free for it. Of course, Rhys could simply hold a light source aloft with his telekinesis too, but they were getting in some magic practice in today anyway, so the thought was on Noa's mind.
"Try it now," he said. "The same energy that you used before. Reach for it, and picture it flowing through your body, radiating outward as light." It was important, in this case, that Rhys tapped into the right energy source, since he also had an inborn ability to manipulate light magic to some extent. He already knew how to call on that, though it mostly manifested as a healing aura, rather than simply light itself.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 15:30:22 GMT -6
Rhys went still, alighting on Noa's shoulder. He seemed to be thinking it through, so Noa didn't rush him. Once he felt ready for the attempt, he would make it, and then they would see what happened and go from there. There was less work for Noa to do this time around, since what Rhys was trying to do was to himself, and not to Noa. There was no need for Noa to feed him energy, so all he could do was observe and offer advice if need be.
After a moment of waiting, a brief light flickered from the Faeron's body, then went out. Rhys took a breath and then tried again. There was an even longer pause this time, and the light produced afterwards was much fainter at first. It grew more intense, and then dimmed again, in erratic little ebbs and flows, but Rhys didn't immediately give up.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 15:33:54 GMT -6
Noa guessed that he must have tapped into the wrong energy source for that first, abortive attempt, then sensed it and stopped so he could try again. The fact that he was sustaining effort this time must have meant that Rhys felt that he was drawing on the energy he was meant to draw on this time. But the unfamiliar connection made for a weaker response, and it would take a few tries before he was able to channel it properly into a result that they would find satisfactory, let alone useful.
But then, so much of magical practice was learning how to direct the right energy for the right task. Noa had spent hours enough doing the same thing, and struggling with it, that this was something he understood well.
When Rhys finally stopped, Noa said, "Not bad. It wasn't very bright, but you have an idea of what to do now, don't you?"
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 16:30:41 GMT -6
{I think so,} Rhys said. He seemed a little disoriented still, but he had managed to do it, in the end. {I think I need a moment before I try again though.}
"Suit yourself," Noa said, and began unpacking his tools. "Hold this for me." He held out the torch, and felt a slight force against it for a moment -- Rhys, testing the waters for his telekinesis. Fortunately the skills he was familiar with worked just fine, and Rhys took the torch from Noa, holding it up as Noa laid his hand over the stone where Rhys had indicated. Then, with a weary sigh, Noa picked up the pickaxe, and set to work.
He didn't work for very long. Noa's body had never been strong, even when he was younger and his illness less severe. More time spent outdoors raising beasts had improved his stamina a little, but not his strength.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 18:04:55 GMT -6
He didn't make much headway either. It was hard to aim accurately and still put any real force behind the blows. But by the time he had had enough and laid the pickaxe down again, Rhys was at least ready to make another attempt at the lighting spell.
"You might as well try again now. Your glowing thing," Noa said. There was a proper name for the spell, but he hadn't bothered to memorize it, and he hadn't put down any notes on it in his grimoire either. But Rhys knew what he meant, so it didn't really matter. The Faeron settled down to concentrate again, and Noa waited to see what would happen. He dimmed his torch, just for good measure.
It took a while for Rhys to begin glowing again, but the light fluctuated less and became brighter more quickly than it had with Rhys's previous attempt at it.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 18:11:22 GMT -6
Already that was some improvement. Rhys even managed to light himself up to a degree that would be useful for seeing by in the darkness of the caves and tunnels.
"Good," Noa said. "If you can maintain that, then you have it." Rhys opened his eyes and looked at himself, apparently a little surprised at the overall effect. The sight of him was a little amusing. "How long do you think you could sustain it for?"
Rhys paused to give the question some thought. {Maybe a little while. Not a long time.}
Noa sighed. "Well, I guess this means we can't get rid of this thing." He brandished the torch. Still, it was better than nothing, and he had no interest in pushing Rhys's limits with this too much. He wasn't an expert in familiar magics, and this wasn't the sort of utility he needed to desperately pursue or anything either.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 18:22:46 GMT -6
"You should try it a few more times," Noa said. They worked out a signal, and when Noa gave it, Rhys channeled the light into his body again. After a few repetitions, he got faster at it, and the light was a steady, reliable glow that Noa could read by, if he had to. Not a true replacement for good lighting, but certainly enough to see by in a pinch, which was respectable considering the size of its origin. Faeron, like all creatures that could become familiars in the first place, were not particularly large.
With that worked out, Noa had Rhys provide the light for his next round of rock cutting by hovering near the area he needed to cut into. This had the added benefit of allowing Rhys to see Noa's progress, and in turn, to keep him updated about just how much further he should expect to have to dig.
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 18:27:37 GMT -6
The only saving grace of the process was that Noa had learned something of masonry, so he wasn't just hitting blindly away at the rock. There were ways to cut efficiently, with as little effort expended as possible. Unfortunately, because it was rock being cut into, that still meant expending a considerable amount of effort.
Eventually, however, Rhys asked him to stop, and then directed him to cut around a specific chunk of stone. As they chipped away at it some more, a pinkish hue revealed itself. "Mind crystal, isn't it?" Noa said.
{I think there's enough that you could get two chunks out of this,} Rhys said, which was a more specific estimate than he generally gave. Maybe he was getting more proficient with this now that he'd experienced it a few times. {The second one is going to be pretty thin though, and I don't know if it'll be smooth...}
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Post by Noa on Jun 14, 2022 18:30:20 GMT -6
What he meant, of course, was that neither of these were going to be fit receptacles for nodes. That was a shame, because mind crystals weren't really good for anything else. Apparently you could make creature constructs out of them, but what use Noa would have for one of those things, he couldn't imagine. There were already small and annoying creatures enough in the world, and if you wanted one made of rocks, the gem dragons could certainly alleviate that desire. At least the Underground did take them, and they weren't the least valuable rocks you could bring in either, but sometimes it was the mind crystal that was the hardest to find when it came time for him to gather ingredients for a node.
Noa decided to simply think of it as if it were any other stone. Rubies and such were valuable, but they didn't have any magical properties either.
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Post by Jack on Jun 14, 2022 19:12:32 GMT -6
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