Olivia Explanations 1

“There are a few different types of magic. How much do you all know about how it all works?” Olivia asks us all, taking a sip of her tea. It’s the next morning, and Olivia decided to come over early in the morning. In her words, she would rather have as much time as possible to be productive. Ivy has served us all morning tea, and a conversation with Olivia is in order.

I exchange glances with my girlfriends. “Uh, a bit? I think I remember you saying something about martial arts, elemental magic and late bloomers?” I answer for us, unsure of just how much I don’t know. She smiles amusedly. “That is alright. Let me explain it to you all in detail. You need to understand just what you are up against.”

“There are two types of magic users, innate users and acquired. Innate users are born with their ability or abilities, acquired users study and practice magic in order to learn new abilities. As I understand it, each of you, save you Ivy, are innate users.” She says, nodding at us. We nod in response, and she continues.

“Innate users will usually have the advantage in raw power, but acquired users can even the playing field somewhat with enough practice and the use of martial arts, one of the fields of magic that most abyssals can learn. That said, the most powerful innate users will always outclass acquired users.” Olivia explains.

“Among the category of innate users, there are those whose power manifests itself at a young age, and those we call latebloomers, who have their power manifest at an older age, usually somewhere between 18 and 20 years of age. I myself was a latebloomer, and as I understand it, you also were Gemma.” She continues.

“Within the fields of magic, the main three groups are elemental magic, martial arts and general magic. Elemental magic is defined as abilities that can be classified under the 8 elements of the abyss.” She says. “What are those 8 elements?” I ask her, interrupting.

“Fire, ice, earth, lightning, water, air, light and shadow.” Olivia answers fluidly, and I nod in understanding, motioning for her to continue. “Martial arts is a type of magic where the manifestation of the mana of a user is outside, but also attached to the body. Martial arts techniques can be used to do things such as add power to a users strikes, speed up movement or increase awareness.”

“As for general magic, this is the broadest category. It encompasses many different types of abilities, mine included. It not only includes combat oriented abilities that cannot be classified as elemental or martial arts, it also includes healing magic, Fateweaver magic, technomancy, as well as many other utility type abilities.”

“Most abyssals will fall under the general category with their abilities. Magical abilities can range broadly from being able to cook a little better than average and having supernaturally perfectly styled hair, all the way up to gods that have complete control of an entire concept, such as lightning far more powerful than any you have seen, or the embodiment of **** itself.” She explains, and I shudder slightly.

“Magic can be incredibly powerful, but the wielders of such immense power are few and far between. It is likely that at your current level, you have surpassed something like 99% of the abyss in power. I am unsure of your exact levels of power, but this is my estimate based on having fought you, Gemma.” Olivia explains.

“Are there ways to measure an abyssals power level? My abilities classify abyssals into levels like a video game, but are there things outside of that?” I ask curiously. “There are indeed. The abyss uses a tier system to classify power levels of different beings.” Olivia explains.

“Tier F is the most common. It encompasses about 97% of abyssals, and it is defined as people who are either at mundane or just above mundane power level. People in F tier still have magic, but are not able to do all that much with it. Magic prolongs their lifespan to slightly longer than the average mundane human, and they can stay relatively fit with little comparative effort, but that is about it.” She continues.

“Tier D is the next most common. That is about 2.5% of the population. I would say that you and I Gemma, are in the lower ranks of C tier.” Olivia says, nodding at me. “The tiers get exponentially more powerful, with B tier, A tier, and finally, S tier. Beings in S tier are exceptionally rare, and they are beings so powerful that it can barely be comprehended by most of the abyss.”

“A sizable portion of those within the S tier are gods and goddesses, who represent divine concepts and have an immense amount of power within the concept that they represent. It is lucky that gods and goddesses mostly exist in a realm of their own, and do not bother to interact with the rest of the abyss.” She says.

“Of those in S tier who are not gods…well, I shall save that explanation for another day. It can be quite overwhelming. For now, I believe it is important that our focus remain here. Just for reference, I believe that in order to make Sydney a safe place, we will need to defeat several beings in B tier. Lower B tier to be specific, but B tier nonetheless.” She theorises.

I nod at this information. “Then we’ll keep training until we’re strong enough.” I affirm. Olivia smiles at me. “Your optimism is a nice change of pace. I am glad that even seeing the conditions abyssals live through in the city has not dulled your resolve or your hope. This city needs you and others like you.” She says.

“On that matter, would you mind explaining your powers to me? I believe the more thorough of an understanding that we have of each others’ abilities, the better we will be able to work together.” The lady of the beasts posits. I nod. “Of course. My title is The Gamer, and as such, my main ability is to sort of…gamify things.” I say.

“My ability turns things I do into achievements, things I want to do into quests, it allows me to create dungeons with enemies that I can get XP points from and grow in power, and it also allows me to see the power levels of abyssals by dividing power into levels. I can allocate statpoints into my different stats and increase my raw speed, strength or intelligence this way.”

“I am able to learn other abilities and have acquired a variety of different types of magic, including mana based spells, ice elemental magic, very basic fire magic, summoning magic in the case of Ivy, scrying magic with my observe spell, as well as love based magic.” I lift up my arm and show her the mark on my wrist.

“This is the mark of love. It is shared with all of my current partners, save Paige. Once my system thinks she has fallen far enough in love with us, I will be able to put this mark on her too. This mark binds us all together, and last night, I unlocked an extremely useful ability.” I continue.

“My current level is level 60, according to my system. Ivy is level 60 too, as she levels with me, Mia is level 62, Skylar is level 32 and Paige is level 20. As far as I am aware, up until this point, Skylar and Paige are not able to level up anymore. The mark of love allows them to level up all the way to level 100.” I say proudly.

Olivia raises her eyebrow at that. “That is an extremely potent ability, one that as far as I am aware, is unheard of. Being able to increase the potential power level of others around you, even if it is only under specific conditions, is an incredible boon. From the sounds of it, you have a near impossible and extremely powerful ability with your gamer powers. I am glad to have joined your guild.” She admits.

I smile at her happily. “I’m pretty happy with it so far.” I admit. “What is your maximum level? Do you know?” Olivia asks. I shake my head. “It would be prudent to try to find that out on one of your information windows. In any case, would you mind observing me in order to ascertain what your system defines my power level as being?” She asks. “Sure.” I tell her, activating the skill.

Her level and stat distribution is really interesting, and it’s easy to see how her powers work. She’s a very similar level to Mia, Ivy and I, except that she has most of her stats weighted to intelligence and spellpower, a pure mage build from first glance. However, knowing her powers, it’s likely that she gets boosts to her stats depending on what forms she takes.

I find the relationship and emotion windows interesting as well. She does seem quite businesslike in her approach to us so far, and it’s nice to know that she does actually enjoy our company somewhat. On the flip side, her demeanour and the information makes it very clear what she considers her primary focus at the moment.