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Taking the time that bought him, Matt pulled out another paper and held it as he waited for the end of the [Fireball]s. When he counted the last projectile, Matt sent a bit of mana into the paper, and a giant bolt of lightning lashed out.
The spell was simply a massively overcharged [Jolt] but, with Tier 11 materials, he was able to shove thousands of mana into the single spell, to devastating effect.
As befitting his Tier 25 status, the tester wasn’t even fazed, but he nodded in approval as he said, “I’m going to start attacking now.”
To Matt’s relief, he was only moving at a physical fighter’s Tier 10 speed, so he didn’t have to use any more of his speed talismans. It put an incredible toll on his body to increase his speed for even the short two seconds, and his joints were already complaining.
Retreating as much as the room allowed, Matt cast a few spells through his staff while taking out a defensive talisman.
As the man rushed forward and threw a punch at Matt, he activated the talisman, and a barrier of blue mana crystallized around him. It shattered under the higher Tier’s power, but he didn’t press the attack.
Matt used the time to retreat back into the center of the room and launched another series of attacks while being forced to dodge and avoid the tester’s relentless approach.
When Matt had spent half of his mana usage allotment, the man waved him off and said, “I’ve seen enough. You hit hard. I have to ask, though. How much harder can you hit? Some of those attacks border on lethal for even Tier 11s. If you can get a lot stronger, we’ll want to prepare special defenses for any time you’re fighting other people.”
Matt hesitated before admitting, “If I have a few seconds, I can hit three or four times that hard.”
That earned him a raised eyebrow and a headshake, but the man just tapped at the air before gesturing them to a secondary room.
“Here, we need you to prove that you can create talismans. Feel free to use the provided materials. We need to see you make a version of each type of talisman you intend to use in the tournament.”
Matt thanked the man and got to work.
He would need to create an offensive talisman, a defensive one, a support talisman and, finally, an array talisman to meet those requirements.
The first three were standard enough talismans that anyone could buy or make with the proper tools, but the final one was more specialized, and a much more difficult application of the craft.
At the cost of time and an absurd spike in difficulty, it was possible to link talismans and let their power funnel into a single attack. It wasn’t as simple as creating one large talisman but, instead, involved mathematically linking a series of smaller talismans to create an array that was able to express more power than the sum of its parts.
The problem was creating a talisman array was a thousand times harder than a single talisman, and there was no room for error over the seven talismans. Prime numbers being the most stable talisman array formations, Matt usually went with seven or eleven, depending on exactly how much power he needed.
Talisman arrays also had a much longer cast time as he needed to link the parchment together before casting. So, the larger the array, the longer it took to set up, but there was little that could survive that level of attack.
Using the provided mana from the city, Matt quickly created the first three types of talismans. He went with his easiest skills, a [Fireball], one of his speed talismans, and his [Mana Barrier].
It took him only an hour to complete the three, but close to eight hours to properly plan and create the talisman array. Each imperfection on the parchment needed to be taken into account before he could even start drawing out the lines and engraving the spell lines into the spirit of the material.
Still, he completed the process without an issue and was even able to keep the talismans he created, to his surprise.
He hadn’t expected that, with them providing the materials and mana.
Liz had long finished her own testing and had proven her alchemy skills, so they were let go after being given a teleportation token.
The man who gave it to them explained, “This will teleport you to a personal room created for your privacy from any of the teleportation pads throughout the city. No one will be able to track your movements, and the rooms are perfectly secure. When the tournament starts, you’ll be issued another set of keys. Even though these are linked to you two directly, I wouldn’t suggest losing these. Replacing them isn’t cheap.”
They quickly used the keys and found themselves back in their own room at Mara and Leon’s place.
Liz pulled off both of her masks and asked, “What did you do, Mom?”
Mara opened the door and innocently said, “Nothing much. We just had the teleportation array link you here.”
Matt didn’t mind that fact and tuned out Liz bickering with her mother. He had spent quite a few talismans that he would need to recreate before he fought again. He had expected that and stockpiled a truly massive amount of processed parchment and enchanting ink, but he wanted to keep his reserves topped off as much as possible.
He only stopped his planning to give Aster a pet as she joined him, sitting on the bed.
Leon reappeared at some point and joined in teasing Mara, but as Matt was planning out his next few days, the absent Luna appeared with a small cough.
Mara and Leon each let out a small scream and vanished, only leaving behind outlines of themselves.
Luna just rolled her eyes but focused on Matt and Liz. “You two did well in hiding your abilities. Now that you’re Tier 10, I have a new training method for you, though.”
She looked to the two still fading outlines and reached through them, pulling back a pouting Mara and Leon.
Luna didn’t give them even a moment to speak. “Show them mana patty.”
Mara turned and looked shocked to see the shorter woman. “Oh, Luna, how nice to see you. It’s been too short.”
Leon kept up his pouting and crossed his arms and legs while being held by the collar, keeping his eyes closed.
Luna shook him and asked, “Aren’t you going to say hi as well, Leon?”
The Tier 48 shook his head and murmured, “If I see no evil, there is no evil.”
Luna just threw the man into the far wall and scoffed. “I have no interest in teaching you two idiots. I have new protégés who aren’t giant slackers. Now, stop fooling around and show them mana patty before I change my mind.”
Seeing their lifeline, Mara and Leon quickly sat in front of each other with only a few feet between them.
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