The staff I handed back to Alice felt very simple. By that, I mean the way mana flowed through it. I might not be able to control my mana yet, but I can still feel how it flows. The staff had two central streams of mana and some branches in the carved head. Almost like a tree drawn by a kid. Wouldn’t this be what you want in a staff? How is it bad?
(It is too simple, Master.) Laura told me. (It cannot handle more complex spells, as they require more routes for the mana to take. If you tried casting an advanced spell with this staff, it would break. This is also why mana circuits in your body become more detailed as you level up your skills. You need more routes for the mana to take. This in return requires higher level mana control. In this way Master is unbalanced, as your mana circuits are extremely detailed, but your mana control is between bad and nonexistent.)
…thanks for that. You didn’t need to burn me so hard. I know I can’t control my mana yet and apparently I’m learning in hard mode.
(Well, at least I have you to take care of the mana control. Thank you Laura.) I thanked my ever faithful companion.
(Hard mode does not do it justice, Master. Learning mana control with your mana circuits would be near impossible.) Laura said.
(But you can do it just fine.) I complained.
(I’m system support. I can do mana control even without the skill, so this level of control is not overly difficult for me. But Master’s body does still limit mana control, leading to slower mana movement.) Laura told me.
I guess that’s why my telekinesis can’t keep up with faster movements.
(Correct.) I heard Laura say. (That is why I’m working on leveling up Master’s mana control when possible.)
“Can you tell me about this staff?” Alice asked as she was looking it over. She was like me, whenever I got Dark Magician Girl back from her.
“I’ll wait until I get a look at your mother’s staff. I think that will give me more insight into the structure of staves.” I told her. “All I can tell for now is that that staff is simple and you shouldn’t use anything but the most simple magic with it.”
“How do you know that?” Alice asked.
“Laura told me some things.” I answered.
“...I shouldn’t have asked. Then how about you ask Laura how I can make it better.” Alice requested.
That’s not a bad idea. Laura?
(You should pass mana from one end of the staff to the other. That way it will naturally develop new mana veins within it.) Laura told me and I repeated it to Alice.
“Like this?” Alice asked as she held the staff on her lap with one of her hands on the crescent moon and the other at the bottom end.
“You know, I can’t actually see your mana.” I commented.
“Oh…” Alice realized her blunder.
“You should probably ask your mother as well. She might have her own technique.” I told her.
“Sure.” Alice responded and focused back on her staff.
“Already at it.” Christina commented as she returned. She was holding a dark brown staff with a beige sphere at its top end. An earth magic stone? Her staff was longer than Alice’s at around 1,5 meters tall. And the color was a little lighter than Alice's.
“Mother. Please teach me!” Alice requested.
“Sure, but you seem to have the basic idea down.” Christina responded. “How did you know to do that?”
“Brian told me.” She answered.
Christina then turned to me and asked the same question. “And how did you know that?”
“I have system support, remember? I can learn things.” I told her.
“So it can even tell you things like that.” Christina let out. “Well you wanted to see mine, here it is.” Christina said as she was showing me her staff.
Well, I did have a basic look at it already, but it really is a lighter shade of brown than the one Alice is holding. Is it because of the development of the staff or was the base branch different color? I guess even the magic stone could be influencing it.
“Could I hold it?” I asked.
“I don’t mind, but please don’t cast a spell inside the house.” Christina said as she handed the staff to me.
It’s quite heavy. It’s much heavier than I thought it would be. Alice’s was light, like I expected, but this one is heavier than I would have guessed by its size.
(Laura, analyze it please.) I ordered as I focused on feeling the mana flow.
(Sure.) Laura responded casually.
I could feel my mana flowing from my fingers into the staff. And it was different. A lot different. If Alice’s one was like a child’s drawing of a tree, this one was like one drawn by a skilled painter. The mana circuits went in different directions and had all different thicknesses. I don’t know how many there were lengthwise, but I would guess at least thirty. Compared to the two Alice’s staff had, this is complex.
(Master, the analysis is complete, but reproduction is impossible.) Laura told me.
(Impossible? Why?)
(The magic circuits in the staff are personalized and cannot be remade by the dungeon.) Laura explained. (A reproduction would have simple magic circuits, closer to the one Alice has.)
… so if I want an OP treant staff I need to put in the work. No cheats for me. Well more like, no more cheats for me. Not that I really need a staff in the first place.
(Having one might be good for mana control practice, but it wouldn’t affect Master’s summonings or telekinesis.) Laura told me.
So it would be a waste of effort. I guess I could eventually get one, but I have no rush to prioritize one.
“Thank you.” I said to Christina as I handed the staff back to her.
“Why the sudden interest in staves?” She asked as she received her staff.
“Just analyzing things so I can improve the dungeon.” I told her.
“...what does that mean?” She asked.
“When I analyze something, I can reproduce it with the dungeon.” I told her.
“What!? Really!?” Christina seemed surprised. I guess this information is not available.
“Yeah, I can. But the reproduction is usually an inferior copy.” I told her. “For example if I tried recreating your staff, I couldn’t remake all the magic circuits that it has and it would come out like a simple staff that only has a few magic lines.”
“You can feel the magic circuits inside a staff?” Apparently that part surprised Christina as well.
“Well, kinda.” More like Laura can move my mana in a way I can figure them out from.
“How high is your mana control?” Christina asked.
“None. I don’t have the skill. Laura does my mana control for me.” I told her.
“The system support can do something like that? Now I want the system support as well.” Christina said as she heard just how useful the system support is.
“Sorry, but I can't help you with that.” I told her. I have no idea how one gains the system support. I guess it might be by eliminating a dungeon as that is how I got Laura.
But I guess I could ask the lady herself.
(Laura, how does one gain system support?)
(I can’t access that information, Master.) Laura told me.
Stupid classified information. I guess the system doesn’t want everyone to have system support. I guess the system might run out of processing power if everyone had system support.
“Mom! Please instruct me.” Alice called out to her mother. I think this is the first time I’ve heard Alice calling her mother ‘mom’. She always said ‘Mother’ previously. Progress? Perhaps.
I guess I’ll take this opportunity to slip away. I need a more peaceful spot to summon Dark Sage in, so I can ask if he can convert the monster cores to magic stones.
“I’ll be heading to my room.” I told Jenna, who was standing by.
“Sure. I’ll come get you when it’s time for tea.” She told me as I left the room.
Alice realized her plunder.
You know you made a blunder when you used words like plunder.
fixed my blunder
@nro_8 Fixed your plunder already?
“Well you wanted to see mine, here it is.” Christina said as she was showing me her staff.
Imagine her pulling out a d*ck
You make it sound like I can't own a tank in real life. In my state tanks are legal to own and operate but the main gun must be decommissioned. In oregon you can even shoot it as long as you are on an appropriate range.
Of course in Ukraine you can have as many Russian tanks as you can take.
I know you can own basically anything in the USA if you do your paperwork. But at the same time, you can't own a standard AR-15 in California. Laws just are dumb. Either fully allow guns or don't allow them at all. (Perhaps not select fire guns, but that is another can of worms.) This 'you can own this nurtured POS' is just stupid. I was more so making fun of the laws, as most law makers say something like Overdrive should be so illegal, because 'No civilian should own an armored car with a machine gun.' (Yes I know the gun on Overdrive is a Gatling gun, not a machine gun.)
It is still wasteful so it kinda make sense for Alice to say it us wasteful, like why spend money on the fuel required to drive a tank when a normal car can get you to your destination faster and cheaper, more confortably too. Owning a Tank is still cool as f*ck though
@nro_8 I mean considering almost all the mass shootings were with AR15 including the latest at a freaking ELEMENTARY school where innocent children died while police stupidly stood by uselessly, they should ban all guns but if not at least the automatic ones. No civilian needs an auto assaults rifle, and definitely not so readily available.
@Lameduck987 I don't know if you are joking with this or not, but as far as I know, it's both difficult and expensive to legally buy a select fire (aka full-auto) AR in the US. You either need to buy one that is pre-1986 and those things cost like 20k+ or be a dealer. But that is only my knowledge.
Also as far as I know, almost none of the mass shootings actually use full-auto guns. I think the only one that actually had a full auto gun was the vegas shooting in 2017. (Actually it didn't use them, I checked. It used bump-fire stocks, which are now banned.)
@nro_8 Even a semi auto is too much. The 2nd ammendant was made in time of musket rifles where it'd take you like a minute to reload after one shot. We desperately need gun reform laws. Children shouldnt be dying cause some maniac can get an AR
@Lameduck987 It's not really even just gun reform. If you look up Switzerland gun ownership, you'll find that they have a ton of guns going around and almost no mass shootings. Also the 2nd amendment was made to protect the people from the government, so the "It only applies to muskets" makes no sense.
I'm not saying that something shouldn't be done, the number one thing being psychological evaluation of all gun owners, but blaming a gun (an object) just irks me. A shooting is not the fault of the gun. Ever. There is always some madman pulling the trigger.
@nro_8 But it enables the madmen to be able to kill multitudes with ease. If they had a knife they would be able to kill a few but not that many and easier to over power them then if they had a freaking AR. There is simply no need for an average person to have an AR, their fun doesn't make up for the danger to society. Its fun to drink and drive too but we ban that.
@Lameduck987 and that is why the reform on who can buy them, not what they can buy.
@nro_8 I believe it should be what they can buy AND who can buy it. No ONE outside the country's military or Swat needs an AR. There is absolutely no necessity for an average person to have it.
@Lameduck987 except for all the people that use guns like an ar-15 or semi auto shotguns for competition shooting, like 3-gun. There are always multiple sides to an argument.
@nro_8 Thats not a NECESSITY. They can go without that bc the benefit of those competeitions is not worth even the single life of a person
It is a bit more complicated than that, unortunatelly. You are also asuming that all the guns that are currently in human hands are legally bought... most of those with AR probably got them using illegal means. Laws only encourage them to break them, just like drugs and other illegal stuff... it is part of the human nature to defy order...
Like you tell a child not to go to a specific areaor do a specific thing, they will just be curious about it, they will go and do it, it is the same with adults, just that it is more of the, 'you can't tell me what to do'.
@Lameduck987 I completely agree. It is not. But then again you could say that no-one should own a car as cars kill people as well. And most people are not ready to give up their cars. The reason people hate guns is because it's a tool made to kill. (And that is true.) The problem just is that people see a gun and that is automatically the problem, instead of the deeper issues that are behind a lot of the violence in the US.
@nro_8 Cars are literally a necessity in todays world its not even the same argument. I agree theres a lot of deeper issues that also need to be solved, but we need to start somewhere
@Lameduck987 Well they are, in the US. I don't own a car and even my parents, who live in a place that is not considered a city, don't really use their car on a day to day bases. And this goes for even before the pandemic as they would go to work on a train. Great public transport and bike infrastructure can remove the need for 95% of all car travel.
@nro_8 I'm talking about US. We have the gun problem and the infrastructure problem, suburbs are basically designed to make cars a necessity no shops within easy walking distance. Most peoples work commute is like 30 mins by car lol. Public transpo also sucks here
@Lameduck987 holy crap, when you see your notifications go to 14 from the same post...
Guess i will educate a bit.
ARs are not M16s the AR platform while similar only shoots one time each time you pull the trigger and fully release it. This is called simi-auto. Revolvers are not technically but get lumped in when gun law gets tossed around meaning almost every gun in the US is simi-auto.
M16 is select fire which means you have options for how many rounds leave when you pull the trigger. This is a military gun and you can own it for a number of reasons but you will be watched closely.
Almost all mass shootings happen with handguns.
Guns are not a problem, crazy people are. If he had no gun it would have been a knife. No knife a pipe. We have a mental health problem in the US.
If you have not tried to buy a gun in the US then you should not talk about reforming the gun laws until you do. There is a rather funny video of a news person that wanted to show how easy it was and was denied live for a crime he committed in the past.
Let me leave you with some roughly remembered stats from a government page. ( cdc ot fbi I think, been a while) There are about about 16000 gun related deaths and about 3000000 defensive uses each year in the US. That means 3 million people each year avoid being killed vs 16 thousand that die, some by suicide and others in accidents, as well as the homicides.
@MajorMagers I've no desire to argue with gun nuts. The major thing wrong with the country is ppl putting individual rights over society well being.
@Lameduck987 if I am a gun nut then I am not sure what the guys in the NRA and military should be called. Hell I don't even hunt.
I personally believe that individual rights determines social rights and laws. If you can't be free as an individual you can't be a free people.
@MajorMagers Individual rights are irrelevant when it comes to societal rights. This is why some countries were able to control spread of coronavirus much better than others.
@Lameduck987 without individual rights protected then everyone can be enslaved. That is a proven fact demonstrated by many countries around the world in different time periods.
Plenty of examples from both world wars, and there are plenty more before and after.
If you take away the right to own a gun then you are saying that you don't have the right to defend yourself. We don't even need to get into the government being the one you need to be defending yourself from. If you can't have what all the criminals have you are dead. Criminals will always have guns. When they know that you can't stop them they will walk all over you. You will be a slave in all but name until they decide you are no longer needed. Look at the drug cartels in Central to South America for an example.
The right to free speech goes away if the right to have arms goes away. If there is no implied threat of violence then the government will have no reason to behave. Same with criminals and citizens. The 2nd amendment is there to ensure that the whole constitution is treated with respect and changes to it are very carefully made. If someone unilaterally decided that the right to free speech could be done away with the Second amendment gives the people the power to remove said person. (If the rest of the government does not do it)