The Alchemist's Apprentice

Justifiably Overpowered

While the king conspired with his minister, Lilly was in fact flying invisibly over the capital. 

It hadn’t been easy, but she had produced all the items that the AKS sisters described as ‘essential for travel’. The Boots of Bounding Speed, the Compact Mana Battery, the Clock of Invisibility, the Cloak of Gliding Steps, the Gauntlet of Immobilisation, Aquarius’s Everfilling Bottle and the Key of Twilight Respite.

It was to put it lightly, excessive. 

The Compact Mana Battery was the star of the show, having let her save up her energy for the days before the trip and power her equipment without straining herself. Although the amount of mana she had was not insignificant, using multiple magic items would drain even her large pool quickly.

The Boots of Bounding Speed combined with the Cloak of Gliding Steps allowed her to move in a series of massive leaps, controlling her fall and descent to effortlessly pass through the city, crossing from streets to houses and houses to walls. Even though the city was not small, she crossed it in less than ten minutes. 

Naturally she was benefiting from the clock of concealment as well as she traversed the town and headed out into the fields surrounding the city. 

In her vision, the Akasha Uplink was tracing a route with green lines that ran towards the horizon, and showing a counter with her distance, speed and expected time of arrival. 

In her ear the voices of the AKS sisters bickered. 

[After she visits the filter substation, she should re-establish the link of AKSHome to the main static relay station. That way we can get a better picture of what we need to fix.]

[Fixing one substation isn’t going to help. We’re about three and a half percent away from the critical point. We’re going to have to hop from station to station to stall the erosion.]

Lilly bounded across the fields, gaining momentum with each leap. The Cloak of Gliding Steps not only stopped her from breaking her legs, it allowed her to ‘step’ on almost anything, whether it was a spiders thread or a blade of wheat, she had a few seconds of grace to push off it as if it was a solid surface. Meanwhile the Boots of Bounding speed caused her to accelerate with each consecutive ‘step’, sending her higher and faster the longer she could keep her momentum. Alone these items were useful but finicky- the boots wouldn’t protect you from your own speed or assist you with keeping your footing, the few seconds of solidity provided by the cloak allowed movement over impossible terrain, but was no faster than just using a path. 

In the continental tongue, the entomology of the word meaning ‘overpowered’ was ‘to bestow all others with feelings of inadequacy’ or ‘To make the world cry’. Coincidentally, it had been more than 27 years since someone had felt the need to use it seriously- but, here, away from the sight of the world was a case that qualified. 

Lilly’s speed grew without restraint, until- 

She’d just taken a step that propelled her forwards with enough momentum to clear an oncoming forest. The thrill of the speed let her endure the terrible cold that came with it and mercifully her magnificent eyewear had some protective functions built in, allowing her to see clearly. Her speed had reached the point where even the air had begun to feel a little thick and it was as her toes pushed off the ground that it happened.

[Tag added: [Supersonic] ]

The sudden message and the brief moment of confusion it brought was enough to mess with her pacing. Now, although the boots and the cape were exceptional artifacts, they weren’t sentient, and therefore they used cues based on body-movement and the environment to function. In particular the boots were geared such that to stop, one simply needed to touch their heels to the ground, while to execute a leap one merely needed to push against the ground with the tip of their toes. 

Unthinkingly, Lilly moved her foot slightly downwards as she travelled over the forest and brushed against a thin twig protruding above the canopy. 

The Cloak of Gliding Steps performed it’s function, as did the Boots of Bounding Speed- she was suddenly sent off tangentially across the tree-line. The canopy might as well have been solid as far as her feet were concerned, so she kicked off it before her path could take her down- but, she was now finding that her speed had reached the point where it was incredibly difficult for her to manoeuvre. She wanted to get back on track towards her destination, but when she shortened the time between her steps to try and change direction, the problem got even worse as her acceleration climbed. 

After what seemed like an eternity of rebounding across the same region of forest at over Mach 1, Lilly managed to lock back onto her destination. In time to feel a depressing buzzing noise from her waist. 

Currently, Lilly had a mana ‘capacity’ of 1000. The compact mana battery wasn’t much bigger than a lipstick, but had an internal capacity of 25,000. Of that, 2500 was left. Lilly could manage to charge about 750 mana a day without getting exhausted. 

Less than half an hour ago she still had 12500 left in the battery, so the depletion of 10,000 mana was both unexpected and worrying. 

[You overworked your items. Naturally the consumption of power had to climb to match the performance; the cloak had to prevent over two hundred instances of potentially lethal impact trauma in the last six minutes. Moreover while the Boots of Bounding Speed are capable of precisely altering present and future velocity, to do so they must consume a corresponding amount of power from the reserve.]

“What should I do to go quickly then with what I have left?” As she spoke she started using her heels to kill her momentum while she looked for a good place to touch down.

[In the forest there’s a natural Mana-Well. Invoke the command; “Run Aurasight.aks”]

“Run Aurasight.aks”

[Hi, I’m the creator of this module, AKS 42. Aurasight is an innovative program that visually displays your local background magic count in an intuitive and easy-to-understand fashion.]

“Ok?” Lilly had become accustomed to the voices in her head taking a while to come to the point.

[Aurasight links to the planar Positioning system and Akamapper to provide you not just with a visualisation of magical fields, but a guidepost to the densest concentration of mana in your vicinity.]

The display of the glasses overlayed thin lines of light across the trees and the land beneath them, creating a skeletal picture of the landscape in her vision that was otherwise obscured by the leafy canopy. The lines changed in colour based the density of magic nearby, with a handy reference bar hovering in the corner of her vision. 

In the distance she could see a pillar of light, a beacon representing the closest high density pocket, a mere 1200 meters away. 

The descent through the canopy couldn’t be called graceful. It was after all, the Cloak of Gliding Steps, not the cloak of avoiding leaves and branches. Gravity seemed eager to take it’s revenge, leaving her coughing and aching on the floor of the forest.

She wasn’t particularly worried about encountering anything dangerous- the clock of invisibility with it’s own internal storage had hours of time left on it. In fact it was almost disappointing, from the time she landed, to when she arrived at the glowing spring of magic she didn’t see any animals or monsters at all.

She rubbed her stomach reflectively. She’d eaten well before she left and bought two whole pieces of jerky with her, and yet somehow that didn’t feel like it was going to be enough.

She had the key of twilight respite, but that took 500 MP for her to use, which was a nontrivial amount. 

“If I travel at a lower output, what’s the best time for me to reach the filtration substation?”

Levy answered promptly;

[Currently you’re drawing out about 3 MP/s from this spot. Estimate aura depletion after another 1000 seconds. After recharging the clock of invisibility, and travelling at 60AKMH, you’ll hit the substation in approximately two hours. Remaining mana reserves should be above the threshold we require for the restoration work. We’ve left plenty of margin since we don’t have any means of determining the extent of the damage.]

“Okay. I wonder if I’ll meet any other people along the way.”

[Unlikely. You’re invisible. Though do take caution as invisibility does not protect from non-visual detection methods.]

“Like sound?”

[Precisely. There are many methods, such as throwing powder, using sticks, scattering gravel, spraying dyes, scent, electroception so forth. However, these are mostly relevant when two parties are at close range and attempting to combat one another. They pose minimal threat when the invisible being is also running/flying at high speeds in another direction.]

“Ah- is there an item that conceals all traces?”

[Illhan’s dial of detection is at the present time the most complete concealment device we are aware of, providing full control over all aspects of your perceptibility. Gaze at the water.]

“…. I can see my eyes- that’s, really creepy.”

[In order to provide complete full-body invisibility, the issue of vision is ever-present. The clock has a low cost to maintain, but is not complex enough to handle such a system.]

“What about if I slaved it to the Eye’s of Akasha? You’re sending words directly to my head right? 

Could I make something that does the same with vision?”

[Yes. The clock is simple, but it’s capable of understanding instructions in the Akasha format. There are significant technical obstacles for you to overcome. I suggest that it will be a good learning exercise for you.]

Lilly played around for a while after that, jotting down ideas and notes on improving her understanding of her own equipment, until the local background magic had depleted and she continued on her way.