Mastering the basics.

John spent the better part of half an hour navigating through an unusually helpful array of interface windows and familiarizing himself with the capabilities of his workshop. It was a lot like the base from Z-MOC: the workshop could perform autonomous research into new spells, brew potions and grow ingredients for him, among other unexplored features like the ‘Training Grounds’ mode. All he needed to do was assign the priorities, and the workshop would take care of the rest, though it seemed that he could personally engage to significantly reduce research time.

Fortunately, the skills he’d already acquired opened several avenues of development, but he found himself frustratingly cut off from others. His complete lack of chemical knowledge rendered the alchemy glasswork nothing more than expensive decoration. The workshop wouldn’t be churning out potions or elixirs in the near future. Instead, he’d have it focus on spells, like the one he’d received from the pre-completed research project:

Leyline Tap
Draw mana from a nearby Leyline or Mana Reservoir.
(Domain - Arcane)

He’d already burned a cast of Glamour to test it out and had siphoned back the 18 mp the spell cost from the workshop’s mana reservoir. While not immensely useful in combat, it did grant him a vastly increased resource pool for research and development purposes… and could be useful for topping off at places like the academy.

Now initial focus had been on deciding which project to start first. Enchantment was something he could come back to later, and perhaps due to being based on Planning, the information pane for the Foresight project was all kinds of fucked up. Combat Enhancement and medical projects were tempting, as they promised flat bonuses on his existing capabilities… but the one that really caught his attention was the Nightmare project. Unlike the rest, it offered a new spell, and one that suited a niche he needed to fill: crowd control.

Nightmare
Afflict a target within 4 ~ (10% Intellect) meters with visions of horror, causing them to flee in terror for 3 ~ (16% Wisdom) rounds (18 seconds). Any damage taken will remove this effect. Mind-altering.
Cost: 14 mp
(Domain - Somnia)

Note: Mind-altering effects do not work on targets without the capacity for rational thought and are weaker when used on targets of a sufficiently higher level than the caster.

That project was now currently ticking away, with eight hours until completion. Of course, John wouldn’t be able to stay that long; he’d already spent most of the night in Ulthar and had a life to get back to. He could understand why all the myths about wizards tended to have them be isolated hermits though, there was so much to do…

One of the several issues at hand was experimenting with the workshop’s alternate modes. In addition to ‘Research’, there was also the ‘Training Grounds’ and a ‘Vault’. He spent a few seconds more watching the Nightmare project window before pushing himself off the wall he’d been leaning against and approaching the Mana Controller. A window appeared alongside it, and he highlighted the workshop’s mode, changing to ‘Training Grounds’.

Transitioning modes. Please remain still.

Lines of iridescent magic coursed upwards from the floor and spiraled around him, weaving into a dome that surrounded John on all sides. The pearlescent surface cut off his view of the rest of the workshop, then the colors faded into a deep night blue. He stared at it, watching a ripple move across the surface as if it were liquid.

Transition complete. Welcome to the Training Grounds.

Around him, the dome flowed back into the floor, revealing… nothing. John turned in place, staring out into the void that extended on all sides. It was so empty of color that he couldn’t tell if it reached out an inch or a thousand miles. The only landmark was at his feet, where glowing blue energy swirled in concentric half-circles.

John hesitantly reached outwards, grasping at open air. Nothing. He knelt to touch his fingers against the floor beyond the small space he stood within. There was a solid surface, and the instant he touched it, a line surged outward from where he stood. It carved across the distance, splitting and tracing circuit like patterns over the void, before encircling his fingertips. John stood and took a step onto the intangible surface.

The light followed his footsteps, detailing the space he walked across and dissolving back into black void after a delay. John took a deep breath and began to run directly away from the center of the room. Surges of blue circuits bloomed like flowers beneath his feet and left a fading trail behind him. He ran for several minutes until his breath began to burn, but when he slid to a halt, there still seemed to be an infinite distance to go. Did the room never end?

John turned to look back, watching as his footprints faded towards him until they reached the edge of his glowing influence. In the distance was a beacon of light that seemed to climb upwards forever. It reminded John of something… a sandbox, that’s what it was. The entire room was like an empty sandbox.

Seeing as the whole place was just vacant space, John returned to the entrance, where he was greeted by a massive interface window. It was at least as tall as he was but empty. At least, until he approached it.

Combat Memory Downloaded - Encounters Compiled

Select a Simulation:
-Rumble in the Jungle
-Midnight Haunting
-The Grid
-Dance of Thorns
-Reflection Duel
-Custom
-Endless
-Target Smash

Curious, John selected the ‘custom’ option. The current menu was swiped off to the right, replaced by a new screen split down the middle with a list of enemies on the left and an empty box on the right.

Select your Enemies:
-Generic-
Dewdrop Fae: 5 mp
Drop Bear: 5 mp
Combat Effigy [Base]: 10 mp
Poltergeist: 12 mp
Combat Effigy [Firearm]: 20 mp
Nightgaunt: 25 mp

-Miniboss-
Combat Effigy [Heroic]: 50 mp
Jungle Hydra: 65 mp
Combat Effigy [Mage]: 95 mp

-Boss-
Combat Effigy [Mantled]: 3,500 mp
The Bloodaxe [Shadow]: 5,000 mp
Warden of the Golden Rose [Shadow]: 6,900 mp

-Unique-
The Gamer [??? ?????]: 65,000 mp

John tapped on the ‘Drop Bear’ entry and dragged it over to the right side. A ‘1’ appeared alongside it, and a value at the bottom of the screen updated to show a new cost of 5 mp. Pressing the number allowed him to increment the amount of drop bears he wanted, increasing the total cost of the simulation. He browsed the rest of the list before hesitating, a hand over one of the bosses.

‘Warden of the Golden Rose’? What’s Moira doing on here… wait, what am I doing on this list?

The cost for… fighting himself was astronomically high too. Almost ten times the price of fighting whatever a ‘Shadow’ Moira was. John wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He shook his head, right now testing out the training grounds was his highest priority. Adding a couple of ‘Combat Effigies’ to the drop bears, John accepted the configuration. The window slid to the side again, this time coming up with an assortment of arenas to choose from.

Select a Stage:
-Ashcroft Theater (Barrier)
-Crystalline Cave (Jungle)
-Training Grounds
-Ulthar Backstreets

What is this, Ultra Wreck Sisters Fight? It’s just like a video… right. Duh.

John decided to start off with somewhere he was familiar with, selecting the ‘Ashcroft Theater’. There was one more prompt to confirm he wanted to spend 75 mp on the simulation, which he accepted.

Simulation Engaged

Blue energy coursed outwards in every direction at once, lines lifting off the ground to form wireframe skeletons of chairs, walls, the front of a familiar stage… The theater from school rendered into existence before his eyes, color and textures loading onto the mana framework. It only took a matter of seconds for the details to complete themselves, and John took that time to ready himself by switching to his armor and preparing his weapons.

This time he stood just in front of the sound booth, facing the main stage. On it stood four of the enemies he’d chosen: the ‘Combat Effigies’. Each one looked humanoid, but their helmeted faces and featureless uniforms rendered them entirely devoid of identity. One by one, the glowing blue outlines on their uniforms turned red.

Combat Effigy (Swordsman)
Level 4 Construct
Soulless automatons mass-produced by the workshop, effectively programs given form.
56/56 hp
0/0 mp

All of them sprang into action simultaneously, two swordsman-types jumping from the edge of the theater to rush towards him while the remaining firearm-type took aim from where it stood. He only caught a brief glimpse of the last one, wielding dual daggers, before he had to take cover to avoid a bullet through the eye. Two shots cracked overhead, and John tried to strategize. Any second now, the swordsman-types would close in… but he needed to take out the firearm-type before he could safely engage in a melee. He needed to be absolutely certain that it died… what better time to invoke Magus Inquisitor?

John took a breath, switched out the Thorn for Lerna’s Jaws and broke from cover. The instant he saw the firearm-type, an indicator of a skull appeared before its name, marking it as his Prey. John hurled two daggers into the gunman’s chest, followed by a cast of Rend, then an immediate Impale. The full combo obliterated the effigy, causing it to shatter into evaporating cubes of blue mana, but not without cost. A bullet caught him in the shoulder, inflicting -25 hp and staggering him with the impact.

He stumbled back against the sound booth and gasped in pain. Gamer’s Body prevented his bones from shattering, but it hurt like hell. The agony cleared just in time for him to duck underneath an incoming sword-swing. As predicted, the swordsman-types had closed, and John called out the Thorn just in time to partially block the second effigy’s attack. It inflicted -11 hp, and he rolled with the impact to escape being pincered by the automatons, landing with a painful thud against the back row of seats. He was **** to dodge again when the closest swordsman-type cleaved through the air and chair he'd been using as temporary cover.

Evasion became his sole focus, eyes locked on the incoming blade until he jumped back and slid into the aisle. Finally, he had space to work. Whirlwind Sweep and Starfall took a sizable chunk of both the effigies’ health pools as they came charging at him, slightly hindered by the obstacles the theater seats posed. A second cast and lashes with the Thorn took them down one after another, leaving John to pant heavily in the aftermath. Which is when he felt the twin points of the dagger-type in his back.

Critical! -39 hp

John whipped around, swearing breathlessly and stabbed out at the last effigy, engaging the Stake Driver. The weapon plunged effortlessly through the automaton’s chest, but it remained upright and continued to stab at him. John shoved it backwards, pulling out his weapon and whirling the chain. Shredder quickly ripped away at the dagger-type’s health and sent it collapsing in a shower of crumbling mana.

In the aftermath, his breath came in ragged gasps, and John had to dig his nails into the scales of his pants to keep upright. Although the effigies hadn’t had sizable health pools, they had been formidable enemies. It was a good thing that the fight was over…

Of course, he’d forgotten to look up.

“Yri!”

Motherfu-

In retrospect, five drop bears in addition to the combat effigies probably wasn’t his greatest idea. Without the mana to cast Starfall again, he’d only brought down three of the bears before their combined attacks chipped away his health. At least he’d been spared finding out what happens when his health hit zero. Before the final attack could land, the remaining drop bears and the entire theater had vaporized and left him alone in the void, defeated.

Custom Simulation Ended!
Encounter Complete: Seven enemies defeated.
+129 Experience

Achievement Unlocked! ~ “Tutorial Fight!”
Complete a session in the Training Grounds.
+Combat Overlay Unlocked
+1 to All Stats

Spell Empowered: Rend ~ 2 -> 3
Rend now persists on the target for 12 seconds, dealing damage immediately and once every 6 seconds.

Spell Empowered: Starfall ~ 1 -> 2
Damage scaling improved from 20 ~ (100% Wisdom) to 26 ~ (130% Wisdom).