The Eldrim Cards Legacy

Chapter 252: Alteration

"Aren't dads illusions a little too powerful?" Nero asked his mother as they drove past countless monsters and cursed beasts. Moving or travelling about at night would attract countless curses. This was a fundamental truth that everyone knew, though in cities the army had somehow managed to reduce the number of curses that would appear. But even that wasn't foolproof.

His father would never give a straight answer, if only because he'd like to irritate Nero. His mom, however, might just answer.

"It wasn't always like this," Marilyn said, her voice low, as if lost in a memory. "You already know that your dads family weren't much into fighting. Your grandfather used to work in a forge, and that's how their family has always been, but your dad wanted to be different. Unfortunately, his innate ability wasn't that great, and he wasn't too physically gifted either."

Marilyn sighed, and paused for a few minutes.

"Well, some bad things happened, your father got in a fight with a school bully and like always he was losing. Until suddenly, something clicked. He had an idea, used his ability in a different way and, well, nothing has been the same since."

"Are you seriously telling me that he just, what, used his ability differently and now he's OP (over powered)?"

Marilyn shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you. His ability is a golden flame that lets him transmit data using light. At first, he just used to use it to send messages to people and stuff, until one day he decided to control all the data being transmitted to the brain. Through light, he can even simulate data pertaining to the other senses.

The freaky thing is, it even works on blind enemies, since he doesn't need anyone to see, he just needs to use light as a medium to reach the brain."

"That's still stupid. You can just wear a blindfold, or close your eyes. The data transmitted through the light into the eyes will never reach the brain if the eyes are closed."

"You're right. But remember, that was his ability when he was a Neophyte. Since then, his ability has evolved twice, not to mention he can use cards to produce spell models different from his own. Your dad has thoroughly mastered illusions to a level that's pretty scary. I've never seen anyone be able to detect his illusions completely - even curses!"

Nero looked out at the monsters around them through the now broken windshield, and saw now they could not see the van driving right past them, let alone hear them.

"But, over the centuries, the Soren family has written down their successful recipes, as well as test results to determine which two different spells managed to successfully fuse. As you've noticed, the models appear to be in geometric shapes. There seems to be some kind of correlation between the shapes of the two spells that can fuse together.

I'll hand you some of those books once you've mastered the first way to alter a spell model.

"The third way is, once again, a very difficult way to alter spell models, mostly because of how long it takes. Showering the spell model consistently with aether dust, just enough that it continues to absorb it, will eventually elicit a change from the model. But this way can take hours or even days, during which you have to keep the spell model stable.

Of course, you can use other methods to keep the spell model stable than your own aether, but that reduces the quality of the product.

"The fourth way is to expose the spell model to elemental aether. Elemental aether is tough to get your hands on, as you don't commonly find elemental shards or aether elemental crystals that easily, so for that you have to..."

Throughout the night, as they drove down the lonely road, getting as far away from the curse tide as possible, Marilyn informed Nero about all the ways to possibly alter spell models. After a few hours, Edwards' candle went out, so Marilyn was forced to attack all the monsters that caught sight of them, but fortunately the strongest of them were in the Arcanist level.

When Nero compared how easy it was to travel with his father, versus what it was like when he was not around, he finally realised why most people never end up travelling long distances, or why they rely on caravans.

By the time the sun began to rise, they had actually driven so far that Fordham base was visible on the horizon. But instead of coming closer, they stopped at that distance. Nero was not due to arrive just yet, and they still had to practise his spell model alterations. At the same time, his mother began to give him a crash course on all things related to spell models.

Predictably, Nero had no success whatsoever. He was not able to craft Earth's Boon, and even figured out that the picture, the text, the name was all decided based on his intentions when he fused his aether into the card to craft it.

But when it came to actual spell model fusion, he had no success whatsoever. The first obstacle was stabilising two spell models at the same time. To speed things up, Marilyn gave him a card he could use to preserve a spell model for a time, but she encouraged him to practise maintaining two on his own during his free time.

Yet even with the first hurdle cleared, the second hurdle to making them unstable enough to fuse without dissipating stumped him.

Minutes turned to hours and then days. The mother and son stayed close to the base, but never approached, always just focusing on the spell model alteration.