Chapter 1275 Specialization Has Drawbacks
Chapter 1275 Specialization Has Drawbacks
Unlike Opal, Rae had immediately grasped the issue. Karl was a Beast Master, favoured of the World Dragon, friend to beasts. So, it was only natural that he would have an easy time creating Werebears, Bunnies, and other fluffy or scaly beasts. But Dragons had their own gods and their own aspects. So, making Dragonkin was more difficult.
On the other hand, making Dark Elves was easy because he was bonded to Rae, and that granted some level of favour from the Spider Goddess. If they wanted the servants of the Spider Goddess to help make her wealthy and drape the world in her silk, Rae knew that the Goddess would not disapprove. Not like those snobby Dragon Gods, who viewed their people as above such menial things as being a store clerk.
Now that Opal understood, she altered a few more of her illusions to see what worked and what gave her trouble.
Some demons were easy. Obsession Demons of all sorts, and Wrath Demons of the winged variety. Others were not. Plague Demons and Magic Demons were both a pain to even visualize.
Dwarves, Dryads and other Fae were possible, but not particularly easy. So, it was all about affinity when you were using magical items to create illusions, and not just creating them out of light and magic. That was valuable information, and reminded Opal that some of these spells would have to be made by herself in the future, unless she wanted to go through all this headache again.
She did appreciate all the hard work that Karl had put in, and she wasn’t capable of making some of these spells. But once she advanced, Opal was reasonably certain that she would figure them out.
Already her understanding of the Illusionary Domain had expanded so much, just from a single building. And, they weren’t even finished yet.
They still had the hotel in the upper boxes to go, and then the final details to be done on the arena plinth so that they could make sure that the protective inscription that would eject critically wounded from the arena floor and put them in the infirmary was functional.
Karl had some doubts that Opal’s decision to make all the housekeeping staff for the hotel Succubi and Incubi was a great idea, but the butterfly was adamant that was how it was supposed to work. Staff was staff, Karl supposed. If they got the job done, he could overlook whatever sort of strange reading material Opal’s sisters had been giving her that led to such a conclusion.
Little did Karl know, most of the cleaning staff in any hotel were Succubi.
Business travellers tended to be alone and lonely, and that was a prime feeding opportunity for the species, with built-in variety. Few stayed at a hotel for more than a few days in a row, after all.
[I wonder if Randomize will let them fight things that we’ve never seen before?] Opal pondered as she finished the work on the building and prepared to place the stones with the arena’s final enchantments.
They only needed one more thing, a large mana crystal to store energy for the barriers, spells and arena, so that it didn’t need constant attention.
But Karl had that handled, they just hadn’t remembered to pick a spot for it in the design.
[Oh, I know. We made a section for judges, let’s put the crystal in the wall behind them! It’s shiny and purple, and it will look great as a wall ornament.] Tian offered.
Opal’s proxy relayed that to Geralt, who spent a moment designing a spot for it, and then settled on putting it on top of a short pillar, so it could be displayed like a trophy, with protective spells over it.
[Alright, everything is in place. Do your thing, monster man.] Opal announced.
Now, for Karl’s turn at the hard part. He had to put all the runes for the spells they needed into the stone of the building, and link them to the magical items that were embedded into the arena so that everything would work together.
He started at the centre, filling the entire bowl of the arena with runes, row on row, to make up the rest of the spells that were needed to form the effect, and then integrated them with the [Illusionary Domain] stone that Opal had created.
Then, the vendors and lower level stalls were added, along with the basement private rooms.
The stores, Karl kept completely separate, so that if something happened to the Arena, they wouldn’t be affected. The only link that they kept was to the mana crystal so that everything could be charged automatically from one point.
The mana crystal itself got a direct feeding inscription, so it would charge off the ley line under Zilaz. Nobody would miss the mana, there were already hundreds of thousands of spells and people feeding off it. One arena was no big deal, and it was an incredibly powerful vein.
All day long, Karl walked through the arena, adding inscriptions to the structure. Reinforcing the stone, building the spells, and even a final hidden room, just in case curious minds wanted to explore and try to find out what the secret to the arena was.
The look on their faces when they realized that the final treasure chest was a mimic, and that touching it opened a portal to the Chaos Plane would be priceless.
That one took a lot of mana, and Karl sat down in the small windowless room at the corner of the third level of the basement as he finished.
{Item Created} Mythic Grade Artifact ⇒ Chaos Mimic
Karl chuckled as the chest rattled happily, then turned itself into Cara, who was staring intently at the box full of chaos.
She already knew that it would taste like Karl’s magic, but it was a box of chaos. Karl really was beginning to learn the value of a properly considered prize. Someone was going to have a wonderful day when they came to steal this one.
As if reading her mind, the mimic turned itself into a radiantly glowing silver sword, lying on a pile of gold and gems.
Perfect. Let them break into the Arena’s ‘treasure room’. It would serve them right.