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After all the excitement of the last few chapters, it's nice to get something a little more "downtime-y", addressing problems that need to be addressed, like housing and the fact that Tola ran off and closed down the bookstore last time. Naughty Tola, Miss Brown is putting a lot of trust in you for someone she only recently met! And now you're putting yourself in such danger. You're becoming such an unreliable employee!
Remember, kids, Blood Magic is dangerous and do not try it at home. There's no real "safety cutoff" at work, so you may end up burning more vitality than you can spare, and magical healing won't work on you. In electrical engineering terms, it's like having multiple connections to your postive voltage rail to be able to draw more amperage than normal. Even though the blood isn't physically connected, it's spiritually connected, but the power draw is several times faster than normal casting. This can be very damaging, because much like cooking, the "rate of energy transfer" is as important as "the amount of energy transferred". The crystals normally would allow a mage to channel that energy over several days, a portion at a time. In video game terms, it's like the spell costs 2000 MP, but Tola's max MP is only 500. By using blood magic, he was able to "burn" max MP and HP to cast the spell, and only proper rest can recover that.
This chapter is a little above the average length, coming in at 7402 words. With this, the grand total passes the 150k word mark, though Book 2 is only at 47,417 words so far. Because I'm a dork that's easily amused by numbers, the little spreadsheet thing I have that calculates the running total (because I got tired of doing it by hand) now includes a column that ranks each chapter by length, making this #8 (with 19 and 20 being considered separate chapters, ranks #6 and #21 respectively). The average is 7249 words, and the median is 6847.
Fun facts! Did you know Ida Grove, IA is a real place? It has a population of around 2051 people as of the 2020 census, has an area of about 2.20 square miles, and is entirely contained in the 51445 ZIP Code. So tiny! My high school had around 2200 students the year I graduated...
Its motto actually is "The Castle Town", which is something I discovered after I picked it out semi-randomly on Google Maps. (I was looking for a pretty remote town with a lot of forest, out somewhere in rural Midwest, something nice and small so some shenanigans could happen without getting national media involved.) The Community Housing Center is a real place, though I don't know if they actually operate as a shelter with beds and stuff. I made that part up. Also, while 255th Street (the road where Princess got hit by a car) exists, Ida Grove Emergency Veterinary Clinic and Reading Is Magic Bookstore are both made up. The Skate Palace castle and the town marker castle thingie are real, though.
After all the excitement of the last few chapters, it's nice to get something a little more "downtime-y", addressing problems that need to be addressed, like housing and the fact that Tola ran off and closed down the bookstore last time. Naughty Tola, Miss Brown is putting a lot of trust in you for someone she only recently met! And now you're putting yourself in such danger. You're becoming such an unreliable employee!
Remember, kids, Blood Magic is dangerous and do not try it at home. There's no real "safety cutoff" at work, so you may end up burning more vitality than you can spare, and magical healing won't work on you. In electrical engineering terms, it's like having multiple connections to your postive voltage rail to be able to draw more amperage than normal. Even though the blood isn't physically connected, it's spiritually connected, but the power draw is several times faster than normal casting. This can be very damaging, because much like cooking, the "rate of energy transfer" is as important as "the amount of energy transferred". The crystals normally would allow a mage to channel that energy over several days, a portion at a time. In video game terms, it's like the spell costs 2000 MP, but Tola's max MP is only 500. By using blood magic, he was able to "burn" max MP and HP to cast the spell, and only proper rest can recover that.
This chapter is a little above the average length, coming in at 7402 words. With this, the grand total passes the 150k word mark, though Book 2 is only at 47,417 words so far. Because I'm a dork that's easily amused by numbers, the little spreadsheet thing I have that calculates the running total (because I got tired of doing it by hand) now includes a column that ranks each chapter by length, making this #8 (with 19 and 20 being considered separate chapters, ranks #6 and #21 respectively). The average is 7249 words, and the median is 6847.
Fun facts! Did you know Ida Grove, IA is a real place? It has a population of around 2051 people as of the 2020 census, has an area of about 2.20 square miles, and is entirely contained in the 51445 ZIP Code. So tiny! My high school had around 2200 students the year I graduated...
Its motto actually is "The Castle Town", which is something I discovered after I picked it out semi-randomly on Google Maps. (I was looking for a pretty remote town with a lot of forest, out somewhere in rural Midwest, something nice and small so some shenanigans could happen without getting national media involved.) The Community Housing Center is a real place, though I don't know if they actually operate as a shelter with beds and stuff. I made that part up. Also, while 255th Street (the road where Princess got hit by a car) exists, Ida Grove Emergency Veterinary Clinic and Reading Is Magic Bookstore are both made up. The Skate Palace castle and the town marker castle thingie are real, though.
Category Story / All
Species Western Dragon
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 41.9 kB
Listed in Folders
At least the Guild back home won't think he's some kind of necromancer or an evil mage, they'll just call him an idiot for trying it, and a lucky idiot for surviving it. ^.~
Dragon Scale is something he would've considered, but even if Princess offered, he wouldn't want to harm her (even minor harm) and it wouldn't be enough. It'd be a boost, but he'd still only be able to channel so much at a time. The imbuement needs multiple "streams" of energy simultaneously because of its design, so even if he did an unsafe amount to "raise his MP" enough, he'd only be doing one stream. And the overdose would possibly burn him worse than the blood magic did. Not to mention possibly dealing with addiction (granted, most of it is psychological, and he's only doing it for "this exceptional circumstance" instead of often enough that using it "feels like the new normal", but that's how it often starts, isn't it...?) or accumulation of draconic essence (even if he would look good with a tail... But this wouldn't actually give him one.) ^.~
Dragon Scale is something he would've considered, but even if Princess offered, he wouldn't want to harm her (even minor harm) and it wouldn't be enough. It'd be a boost, but he'd still only be able to channel so much at a time. The imbuement needs multiple "streams" of energy simultaneously because of its design, so even if he did an unsafe amount to "raise his MP" enough, he'd only be doing one stream. And the overdose would possibly burn him worse than the blood magic did. Not to mention possibly dealing with addiction (granted, most of it is psychological, and he's only doing it for "this exceptional circumstance" instead of often enough that using it "feels like the new normal", but that's how it often starts, isn't it...?) or accumulation of draconic essence (even if he would look good with a tail... But this wouldn't actually give him one.) ^.~
Thankfully, they don't draw in magic from the environment. According to all current research, souls generate magic themselves, with "stronger souls" able to generate it more quickly/more of it/hold more. "Soul strength" is somewhat inherited, if you have magically-strong parents, you'll likely have strong magic yourself. Not 100%, though, and there's a decent enough chance of two low-magic parents having a kid who's the next Archmage or two master magicians having a magic-null child that it's not unheard of, but it's kinda rare. And even if you start off fairly weak, you can strengthen yourself through exercises and practice!
Of course, all current research is also kinda wrong, but it's hardly their fault. It's been a good enough theory to work so far, even with the gaps.
Of course, all current research is also kinda wrong, but it's hardly their fault. It's been a good enough theory to work so far, even with the gaps.
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