Bog Standard Isekai-Chapter 42Book 4.

As soon as Cid outed his Class to the entire Lance, Brin stopped his horse and turned to face them. All at once, he was again fearful of how they'd all react. Sure, they'd stood up to him in front of Caradawg, but how did they really feel? He couldn't help comparing what he'd done to what Zilly and Davi had done to him. He'd sprung a duel on them out of nowhere, and while the circumstances weren't exactly the same, it was an uncomfortable parallel.

"I'm sorry for springing the Crucible on you all like that," said Brin.

"Um, yeah. All right," said Aeron, in a way that made Brin think he didn't understand what he was apologizing for.

“Actually, you’re right. Let me start over. I’m sorry to you, Cid, for putting you in a position where you had to choose between your honor and a fight you didn’t want. The rest of you should’ve yielded, you jerks.”

Aeron laughed. “And there’s the Brin we know and love.”

"For the record, I knew he was an [Illusionist]," said Brych.

"I guessed as well," said Meredydd.

"Me too," said Hedrek.

"Ha! No you didn't," said Cid.

"No, I didn't," said Hedrek with a guilty smile.

"Don't feel bad. I spent the entire Crucible thinking there's no way a [Mage] variant can fight like that," said Aeron. “How can you fight like that, by the way?”

"Uh, I got some pretty good Achievements before System Day," said Brin.

"Did you get the third threshold in Strength?" asked Hedrek.

"Just the second," said Brin.

"I got the third," said Hedrek.

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"It's not a competition," said Cid.

"It kind of is," said Hedrek.

Brin looked around at the smiling faces. Did they really not care that he was an [Illusionist]? He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, so when Meredydd scrunched up his face as if he'd just realized something unpleasant, Brin braced himself.

"Wait a second. If you’re an [Illusionist], does that mean you could've been showing us movies this whole time?”.

"I would never allow that on patrol," said Cid. "You're all distracted enough as it is."

"I don't have the right combination of Skills for it. Most of my levels are in [Glasser]," said Brin. "Lumina said she might be able to send me an artifact that will help, but she also said she'd be sending me some money and there's no word on that either."

"Music?" asked Hedrek.

"I can kind of do music. I’m better just playing it by hand, though. I left my half-lute back at the Order. Maybe I'll find something on the road," said Brin.

"Can you make Brych less ugly?" asked Govannon.

Brin cast Invisibility on Brych's head, making him look like a headless horseman. "How's that?"

Everyone laughed as Brych looked around saying, "What? What'd he do?"

"Let me make one thing clear before we continue: Brin’s Class is a key tactical advantage. We can’t control what Caradawg may know or say, but none of you are to breathe a word of what you know about Brin’s Class.” Cid looked around, waiting for each of the men to nod. “Since we're asking, what about tactics? Coordination?"

"I have quite a few ideas about that," said Brin.

They got their horses moving again, and Brin started going over his plans now that he could use his powers openly. He could give them orders that only they could hear, a whisper in their ear. He could listen to their thoughts and suggestions mid-battle, even if all of them were talking at the same time.

He'd had dreams about building an HUD for each of the men in the Lance that could do things like highlight enemies, give the results of [Inspect] in text form over the people that they saw, configurable minimaps, and much more. The only problem was the mental load of running so many tasks at once. A single directed thread cost him a negligible amount, but if he was going to run two dozen of them to keep everyone's HUDs running, he'd either need to get used to time moving twice as fast as it should, or get used to keeping a portion of his mind split off. Neither option was very attractive in the long run.

If he'd had [Persistent Casting] it would've helped a lot. Unfortunately, that wasn't one of the new Skill choices.

On the plus side, his options were much better than that.

Glasser Skill selections have been altered by Knightly. Please choose one of the following combat Skills.

Glass Weapon Mastery - You gain an instinctual understanding on the best way to fight with glass weapons.

Shape Glass (Morphic Weapons) - Upgrade Shape Glass to gain the ability to shape enchanted glass as easily as non-enchanted glass. This glass must be owned by you or under your complete control.

Shape Glass (Rapid Heating) - Upgrade Shape Glass to gain the ability to quickly bring glass to melting temperature for a reduced Mana cost.

No matter how long he stared at it, there didn't seem to be a way to take all three. He needed all three of them. Now that he'd seen them, he didn't think that he could live without any of them.

But he had to make a choice. From a purely practical standpoint, [Glass Weapon Mastery] might've been the most immediately useful Skill. He didn't know all the prerequisites, but some kind of weapon mastery Skill seemed necessary to gain the [Inexhaustible] ability that the Order of the Long Sleep was famous for.

Later, while they were riding, he took the opportunity to get Cid alone and ask him, "If I had [Glass Weapon Mastery], do you think I'd be able to counter your [Knight's Charge] Skill?"

Cid nodded. "I’m not sure. I basically put my whole build towards one unstoppable ability. How often do you practice sparring with [Battle Fury] fully active?"

"Never," Brin admitted.

"We'll have to practice when we're back at the Order. I wouldn't feel safe using my [Knight's Charge] out here on patrol. You get, what, four points of Strength per level?"

"Five," said Brin.

Cid raised an eyebrow. "That's as many as me, and only one fewer than Hedrek."

The problem with [Glass Weapon Mastery] was that it was pushing him towards the [Warrior] archetype. Hogg had always reminded Brin that actually fighting someone was a last resort; his best weapon was sneaking up while invisible and stabbing his enemies in the back. Not that that always worked out for either him or Hogg.

The pure [Mage] archetype would probably lean towards Rapid Heating. The melting point of glass was actually hotter than the temperature it took to light most things on fire, something he knew from [Memories in Glass]. He'd basically be adding a flame element to all of his attacks. The only problem with this one was that it didn't have the same flexibility of his other choices.

And then right in the middle between [Mage] and [Warrior], there was [Morphic Weapons]. At first glance it wasn’t immediately obvious how much of a game-changer it would be. He could already use [Shape Glass] to float enchanted glass around. He could make his enchanted javelins fly faster and make his Bog Standard spear hit harder. But he couldn’t really alter a piece after it had been enchanted, and that suddenly loomed large in his mind.

This upgrade gave him a benefit right now–he'd be able to repair the enchanted javelins. He'd painstakingly gathered up every piece of enchanted glass he could find from the battlefield, but he'd only planned on using the shards as minor projectiles. Now he could recombine them, or put them all together and make something new.

This basically turned disposable weapons into repeat-use weapons. He could even use his Bog Standard spear to its fullest without needing to worry about breaking it against a [Knight's] armor.

There were crafting options, too. What happened if he shaped two different enchanted pieces into each other? Would the enchantments combine, or would they layer on top of one another? He didn’t know much about enchanting, nothing really. That was something he could put off until he went to the Tower.

He had to admit that this Skill captured his imagination more than the other two. With the right glass, he'd be able to make Mirror Men that were tougher than he was. And what could he do when combining [Morphic Weapons] with illusions? He'd be able to make people believe anything.

His first instinct was to wait and ask Lumina or Hogg for advice, but if he wanted time to practice with his new Skill before he ran into trouble, he'd need to make a choice.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

You have selected: Shape Glass (Morphic Weapons)

Part of his decision was because he’d thought it out logically, but mostly that’s what sounded coolest to him. If he couldn’t take the abilities that looked the coolest, then what was all this for?

Next there was his [Illusionist] side to think about.

Illusionist Skill selections have been altered by Knightly. Please choose one of the following combat Skills.

Firestarter - This Skill uses a combination of sound and light magic to efficiently produce heat, filtering out all other effects.

Call Light through Glass (Lasers) - Upgrade Call Light through Glass to produce more powerful lasers.

Call Sound through Glass (Vibration)- Upgrade Call Sound through Glass to increase the amount of physical vibration your sounds create.

Again, he needed all three. For this, however, he thought that might actually be possible. [Firestarter] sounded pretty lame, to be honest, but if the System was putting that Skill right next to the others it was probably pretty strong and he bet it would be much better than a replacement for match sticks. He could already start fires; Hogg had already given him a Firestarter spell, though that one only used light magic. The effect he might be able to get by adding sound magic too it was definitely worth trying, but not something he wanted to waste a Class Skill point on. If anything, the greatest benefit of this Skill was that the description letting him know to look into this. Something for his next letter to Lumina.

Vibration was also a no. He knew that he was probably dismissing it too quickly, but he hadn’t really specialized in sound magic yet and he’d need a good reason to use a Skill point on it without already having a plan in mind.

There was a non-zero chance that this upgrade would let him vibrate his enemies to pieces, but how likely was that? Hogg had been an [Illusionist] his whole life, and he'd never told Brin about killing with sound. It should be possible to find the resonant frequency of his enemy's skull and vibrate it to pieces, but the fact that Hogg had never got that working made Brin think it was harder to pull off than it sounded. He bet if an [Illusionist] put all his upgrades into [Call Sound], this Skill would add that last little oomph to let him really turn sound into a devastating weapon. But that wasn’t Brin; he’d been upgrading [Call Light].

And then there were lasers. He was fairly certain that no one else had discovered lasers in this world. This was a unique ability that only he and Marksi had, and now he had a Skill to make it stronger.

Before he could second guess himself, he selected Laser.

Skill unavailable - Requirements not met.

What? Why would the System offer him that if it was unavailable? Actually, come to think of it, he thought he knew why.

He used [Memories In Glass] to play back Marksi's first word, just so that he could be sure he was remembering it right.

Then he pointed a finger at a passing shrub and said, ""

He produced a beam of red light between himself and the shrub, visible in the daylight, but it didn't light the plant on fire or anything. He didn't have the depth of knowledge of the Language that Marksi had due to his nature. He couldn't imbue as much meaning into the word as Marksi could, but that was a temporary problem as long as he had Marksi around to teach him. More importantly, he'd done it. He'd found the word in the Language.

Congratulations! You have earned the following Title:

Master of Lasers

You have discovered a new word of Language, unknown to any other human in the world.

Increased power and effectiveness while using lasers.

He selected the Laser Skill again.

You have selected: Call Light through Glass (Lasers)

He summoned a laser against a passing bush, and this time it wasn't the faint beam of light that he remembered from lasers in his old world. It was a bright beam of burning energy, the energy beam weapon that science fiction from his old world could only dream of. The laser burned straight through the leaves of the plant, leaving scorched circles behind.

That was just an idle test. What would happen if he–

"Please don't spook the horses," said Cid. "Practice your magic when we've stopped for the night."

Brin could barely wait, and ended up creating a slew of conscious threads to speed up his perception of time to make the day go faster. All of his minds spent the day dreaming of stuff he wanted to try with his magic.

When they finally stopped for the night, he abandoned his usual role of shouting orders at everyone and rushed away from the camp to start messing with his new Skills. Had he ever gotten two new abilities like this? Yes, when he’d first gotten the [Glassbound Illusionist] Class, and if he remembered correctly, Hogg had been as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.

That thought gave Brin a pang of loneliness. He wished he had someone to share this with, someone who understood. Then he looked down and saw Marksi scampering along next to him.

Once he figured they’d made up enough space, he looked down at his friend and said, “Alright, what should I start with?”

Marksi looked up at him impatiently; Brin knew that he didn’t need to have asked.

“Ok, want to see it? Check this out!”

He pointed and pushed as much Mana as he could fit into the new word. “.”

A satisfying beam of red light flew out of his outstretched finger, a perfect beam stretching a dozen feet to the ground where he was pointing.

Marksi sucked in a breath.

Again, his laser beam put Brin’s to shame. Instead of red, it was a beam of twisting rainbow light; no, he hadn’t imagined that. It was even more dazzling than ever in the fading daylight. It went horizontal to the ground, and it flew for miles before the slope of the earth stopped it, with no sign of weakening or dissipation the entire distance. That was another part of the word , Brin realized. Marksi had imbued that meaning into the word. A laser was the promise of a perfect beam of light that flew forever and never stopped.

Brin tried again, and didn’t do much better. He could tell that Marksi comprehended the word to a greater degree than him, but learning from that comprehension and mimicking it wasn’t something he’d be able to do the first try.

Marksi stood up on his hind legs and gestured at his chest with his claws, as if to say, “Watch how I do it.”

He heaved in a huge breath, sucking in so much air that his diaphragm tripled in size. Then he said, .

The rainbow beam flew outwards, hot and strong.

Brin sighed and said, “The more I see that, the more confused I get. You aren’t saying the word out loud, I sort of feel it in my mind. So why suck in a breath? And where’s all that air even going?”

Marksi plopped down on the ground with his head on his claws, watching Brin with a look of extreme smugness. He flicked his tail back and forth happily.

“You’re not trying to help me. You’re just showing off.”

Marksi started purring. He rarely did that anymore, only when he wanted to gloat.

Brin knew Marksi was both helping and showing off, and he’d also learned a few tricks about the best way to stroke a dragon’s ego. He shot his own laser again, and thought maybe it was a little better. “You could show me that a hundred times and I’d still never catch up.”

Marksi purred a little louder.

“One more time?”

Marksi’s purring died down. That’s not how dragons worked. They didn’t unleash their breath attack for no reason; it was for hunting or fighting. They didn’t use it over and over just so other people could study them. They didn’t learn that way, and they didn’t teach that way either.

“Must you keep doing that? You’re pointing our location out to everything within a hundred miles. I’d rather not wake up to a dozen bands of goblins in the middle of the night, if it’s all the same to you,” said Cid.

Marksi shot his laser one more time, just to prove that he wouldn’t be given orders by some lowly human, but this time it was much dimmer, and Brin felt only a trace of the laser’s earlier power. The little guy was getting tired.

“Thanks! You’re amazing.”

Marksi nodded like that was a given, and then promptly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

That was enough with lasers for today, though even that much practice had given rewards.

Alert! Call Light through Glass leveled up! 55 -> 56

Through training, you have earned the following attributes:

Magic +2

It was time to try Morphic Weapons. He didn’t want to accidentally ruin his Bog Standard spear before, so he started with a piece of broken javelin. He pulled out a thumb-sized piece and pushed Mana into it.

The glass turned into a puddle in his palm. Its shape reacted to his thoughts as if it were reading his mind, and he slid it like a snake around his fingers. If anything, this was easier than manipulating unenchanted glass. It was unreal, almost like the glass was reading his mind.

This was going to be even better than he thought. He’d planned on being able to change the shape of his weapons into what he needed for each enemy. This would be even more than that; he could use this on an instinctual level, changing the shape of a weapon mid-swing.

He laid out the pieces of the broken javelins on the ground, and then set a bunch of directed threads to organizing them, giving them orders to use glass magic to float them into place, like putting together pieces of a puzzle. His threads were not good at this. They just sort of pushed the pieces together to feel if they fit or not with no real methodology or thought, but he didn't want to do it by hand and they were at least quick. He watched for five minutes as the pieces flicked into each other randomly, but slowly the shapes of the javelins started to take place. Here and there he moved or turned a piece that was obviously in the wrong place, but mostly he left it to the threads.

The end result was three javelins side by side, held by his glass magic. The only hole was a thumb-sized piece of glass, and Brin realized he was still holding that piece and that he'd shaped it so that it would no longer fit where it went before. He pressed it to the hole and then shaped it so that it sort of melted into the empty space and filled it.

Now for the moment of truth. Wait. Safety first. He put a barrier of sound around the javelins, blocked light to his eyes and summoned some Invisible Eyes to watch, and then made a glass faceguard for the parts of his face not covered by his helm.

Now it was time. He used Morphic Weapons to shape the pieces together, starting with the javelin that had shattered the least.

Alert! Shape Glass leveled up! 43 -> 44

Other than the notification, there was no sign that the javelin had been changed at all. He picked it up, and it felt solid. There was no sign that it had ever been broken at all. He'd have to throw it to know for sure how much of its power remained, but for now he could only call this a success.

He recombined the next javelin, and immediately it felt wrong. It sparked and shook.

It exploded in a burst of light, but the precautions he’d put in place protected him. The glass face shield protected him from burns and the silence spell he’d put over it meant that the other men probably didn’t even notice there was an explosion over here. The explosion was nowhere near the power of the Fire Jelly core; he probably would've been fine anyway.

But what had happened? This one had been more broken than the others, and he bet there were sliver-sized pieces of glass that he'd failed to find. Or he'd put some of the pieces in the wrong place, that was a possibility as well.

If this one had failed, there was little chance that the one with the piece Brin had been playing with would recombine without a problem, so he decided to test the last thing he wanted to try.

He shaped the entire thing into a glass ball, using Morphic Weapons to meld it all together.

The ball of glass shuddered and sparked, but then settled again. He didn't think it would explode, but when he compared the new glass ball to the first javelin, the power he could feel was much lesser.

How could that be, though? What good was Morphic Weapons if it caused the enchantments to fail or explode? He didn't know enough about enchantments to answer that question.

Frustrated, he caved and messed with his Bog Standard spear, shaping the spearhead into the head of a poleaxe.

The glass flowed as easily as water, and the new Bog Standard poleaxe felt just as strong as it had been as a spear. He filled it with glass magic, and it took to it well, thrumming with the same energy and power that it had as a spear.

He shaped it back, and again, there were no issues. So the problem really had been putting the pieces back together wrong. He was free to change the shape of the whole piece, but if it broke he needed to put it together exactly the way it had been before.

He could work with that. With a sigh, he figured that this was about as much testing as he could do today. Hopefully they'd run into some more goblins soon, and he could really see what his new Skills could do.

The End of Part 2