Spike of All Trades

by Ariamaki

Chapter 47: AWAKE

That was it. Nineteen subquests and four total quests, that was the last of them... It had been a little bit tight time-wise, and he had gone through so much since this morning, but Spike had done it. His first full 'story arc', his gigantic quest, his push forward into feeling like a proper dragon and a proper adult... It was finished. He braced himself for the flood of message boxes and level-ups that were about to come... But they didn't. Even after a full minute of standing and waiting, there was no ding, no shiver, nothing happened to him. He pulled up the Quest menu to double-check...

STORY ARC: My First Day As The Gamer

By making a concrete plan of action to tackle a situation far outside of your understanding, you have begun the first step of your epic journey. Spend your first day grappling with your new power as effectively as possible, and reap the rewards: It's a boost up the ladder to get you started!

Objective: Do all 4 Quests (Chores, Food, Gamer, Free Time) by completing all 19 Sub-Quests.

Failure Condition: Leave more than 0 Sub-Quests uncompleted by 9:10 PM today.

Reward: All Sub-Quest Rewards, All Quest Rewards, 50,000 EXP, 200 Bits, ???, ???, 'Proof'

Chores
> Sort new book shipment (boxes 1-4 in the foyer)
> Reset clocks (already done!)
> Serve overdue fines (see List F7)
> Make beds (mine and Twi's)
> Do dishes (from own breakfast)

Food
> Breakfast (at home)
> Lunch (Hayburg's Hayburgers or Sugar Cube Corner)
> Dinner (wherever I didn't have lunch, I guess)
> Snacks (for Me and Twilight)

Gamer
> Investigate Menus (just at least check them all, write it down. Draw it?)
> Work on Observe (use it on everything. no cost!)
> Look at Ponies (titles? levels?)
> Get XP if possible (quests?)
> Figure out more skills (got observe by observing... duh)

Free Time
> Visit Rarity (<3)
> Visit Cheerilee + CMC (before class lets out)
> Visit Other Ponies (as needed)
> Hit the Arcade, Look at RPGs (research!)
> Talk to Pinkie about The Gamer


It was all done. Even the Objective line was marked as complete. So why... No, wait. It wasn't quite half past eight right now, and the failure condition wasn't going to check until ten after nine. He still had enough time to get to the Library and wait for Twilight to get home... In fact, given how many ponies he had seen with their titles changing throughout the day? The 'Proof' reward made a lot more sense in that context. When Twilight got back, he'd see something about her that he could use to undeniably prove the truth about The Gamer. With that in mind, he started running back to the Library, not even bothering to grind any skills... except the ones that would get him home faster.

Spike had honestly kind of underestimated the changes that had been wrought on him through the course of his day. He was a few hooves taller, his legs were longer, his base DEX and speed were both higher, and his buffs were all stronger and had much more mana to work with... And that was all before the speed buff he had kept persistently active since this morning's citrine souffle. Even taking that into account, he got back to the Library from Fluttershy's place in a fraction of the time it had taken to go out there in the first place, legs pumping but heart strangely calm. He really was making up for lost time... in a lot of different ways.

After he got inside it was a quick enough task to shelf and catalog all of the late books, make a note about the extensions and returns, and deposit all of the fines... And that left him with little to do until the quest finished or Twilight got back. He supposed it would be easy enough to wait at the train station and greet her before she made it all the way into town. It wasn't like he knew the train schedule well enough (yet) to tell if 9:10 was the schedule of the last run from Canterlot anyways, so better to get there now and wait... He could get work in with his more sedentary abilities anywhere, so there was little reason not to.

On the way a few ponies spoke to him, some commenting on his apparent change in confidence, others recognizing the difference in his height and proportions. He chatted with them briefly, only using Observe to pick out a few details here and there. He saw nopony out this late with a title, so he couldn't test that part of Behind the Curtain, but he was able to investigate the specifics of some status effects. There was somepony who had eaten a really fantastic dinner (a weak all-around boost, nothing supernaturally strong), another pony who had the opposite luck (a small HP ding and a constant Stamina drain, which made sense with what he remembered from the Baked Bads), and one with a migraine headache (perception penalties and pain intensified by light and sound).

By the time he got into the station and settled across from the arrivals platform (and checked to make sure that yes, 9:09 was the expected pull-in time) Spike had a little over half an hour to burn in the dying hours of his first-day quest. And he had a solid idea of what he wanted to do with that time: Throughout the day he had gotten clues and leads as to what 'Internal Alchemy' was all about, but the biggest clue had been the accident with Scootaloo. While trying to manually adjust the potency of a buff he had applied to himself, he had gotten distracted and been sent into a state his interface called Mana Confusion.

The consequences of that experiment had been agonizingly painful, but worthwhile in its own way: He had learned how to make one of his skills variable in potency and duration by fine-tuning the mana he put in. And not only had that been considered a part of Internal Alchemy, but even just surviving the event had rapidly enhanced his Mastery of the skill. That almost certainly meant it required a fine-tuned awareness of all of his body's structure, both physical and magical, and how to use that to his advantage... Which meant he could study it again through Omphaloskepsis.

It would be the first instinct for a lot of ponies to say that Spike 'shut out the world around him' as he dropped into his meditation. But he knew better, not just from Twilight's lessons but from his own first-hand experience: This was a union of the user and the world, the world and the user. Twilight had explained it as a mirroring of the microcosm and the macrocosm, but all he felt was a kind of unity. There was a harmony between his body, his mind, and the space around him. Moreso than in any of his earlier attempts, even when he was spaced out beyond belief in the Cakes' kitchen?

He went deep.

Down
down
down we go
No way to stop

Power rode its way through his body in all sorts of forms. He was alive and magical, magically alive, and he felt it now more than ever. Night had fallen over the world outside, and just yesterday he’d have been exhausted at this point... But ever since breakfast Spike had been flush with power, his new nature working to rectify his most hated flaws. He was taller, stronger, better able to give help and support, and most of all he could keep going. Each pulse and flicker of energy made its way through innumerable channels in his body, dimming as they traveled out into his extremities before falling back to the center. There it was all refreshed, purified and amplified, refilling from a spiral core in his gut. Fire in the belly, fire in the blood.

Mixed in with all the other energy, three threads shone clearly and rang out with sweet resonance. Red, green, and gold: His perception, his endurance, and his celerity. The buffs he had picked up throughout the day and kept running constantly. They were still inside his system, not just laid on him as generic enhancements or abstract names in an interface list. Spells, each of them were spells! Magical constructs that were moving and persisting. Spike could reach out and touch them, feel them as surely as he could see any magic with his Dragon's Eyes. But here inside of him, there was a glimmer of potential that hadn't come up before. He had an idea of what it meant, but...

This will lead to excellence
or permanent injury
There's one easy way to know:
Go, go
go

"Stagnet."

The swirling trinity of colors halted dead in the spiral of his gut, and immediately he could feel the burning agony he remembered from his earlier brush with Mana Confusion. It didn't kick him out of his meditation like before, so he continued to focus his will on the stopped powers. At first the stagnating colors seemed like a cross between gems and clotted blood: Crystalline, shining, and not supposed to be in his veins. But the longer he looked, the more he began to see a distinct texture to the stilled magic, a sort of metaphysical 'stop' woven in by his power... Like a sheen of frost on the surface of a pond. And if that was the case? It should be possible to melt the ice again, to let the stones flow like lava. All he needed to do was reach out and start them again...

Put out your claws
as you fall ever-inwards
grasping at something
you should yet avoid...

He didn't know the word. He hadn't even seen the skill window pop up. But as soon as he tried to force the spells back into motion inside of him, he understood what to say.

"Resūmō."

Stained glass, still color, clotted gems... It all thawed back into motion again, flow picking up as if it had never stopped. The colors briefly burned into his eyes and his mind, climbing in intensity and taking on metallic hues. They grew bright enough to blot out everything else, the world painted over in red-green-and-gold like a wave of spring flowers... Sooner rather than later, they all receded back into something resembling normalcy. Not too long after that, the agonizing bursts and stabs of Mana Confusion faded away. Within minutes he was stable enough to open his outermost eyelids and check the windows that had opened in the open air.

A new Command has been added to Stagnet: Resūmō, to recover and restart.

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the persistent maintenance and manipulation of buffs, a skill to form them with raw mana, [Layer] has been created!

[Layer] (Active) Lv 1 EXP: 0.0% MP: 100+ (minimum cost)
Layer as in 'one who lays on hands', a concept often reserved for holy folk and greater magic-users. This skill allows the user to bless those around them with a touch, passing along magical energy to enhance the body. A critical prerequisite in the creation of greater blessings.

Any magical buff the user has received is recorded in an index (shared with Dragon's Kitchen).
By spending a large amount of MP, these buffs may be generated without the need for materials.
Layer buffs always stack with other sources of the same or similar buffs.

That was amazing in its own right, and had the potential to change more than any other skill he’d gained today. But above and beyond what he saw and could contemplate, the biggest change was what Spike felt. Something had shifted, jarring loose and open inside of him. It was like he had an entirely new sense: not-quite-touch / not-quite-sight, a constant awareness of the magic in his body. It was moving, ever-flowing, always an active part of who he was.

Whether he was using it or not.

Whether he was in control of it or not.

Now that you've touched it?
You're back to exclaim:
The spiraling shape
is alive
and it's awake.

And that wasn't the only shift in his ‘new normal’: Either his power was learning to consolidate its messages, or what he had just done was special. Spike had a feeling it was both at once, given...

By creating a new form of [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 25%

By progressively unveiling the truth of your inner world, [Omphaloskepsis] has gained 10 levels.

By refining your heritage, all of your current [Dragon's] skills have gained 5 levels each.

By igniting your internal energy system, you have doubled your base mana capacity.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

some commenting on his apparent change in confidence, others recognizing the difference in his height and proportions.

To an extent, these can actually look quite similar. The original Yugioh manga made this quite clear (the anime exaggerated it to the point of implausibility, and this wasn't 4kids' fault for once)

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

By igniting your internal energy system, you have doubled your base mana capacity.

Now that’s a big buff. I wonder if it just multiplies his mana, or whether it just added the mana stats....

[xbox432]

Hmm, I wonder what change in Twilight's title will be the "Proof" that Spike needs? Heh, maybe Twilight just got back from a ~date~?

[Herald of Opera]

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Like she'd actually admit it.

No, from what I understand this will have to take a page from the original and have him simply send a party invite. (As an aside, I assume that's why Pinkie Pie joined in at the end of the O&O episode. Adventuring party.)

[Booster Spice]

I wonder when Pinkie is going to drop along with Spikes congratulatory food products, while singing Karma Chameleon by Boy George?

I wonder if there was any level triggers through HP, MP etc through handling Magical Confusion seperatly from Dragon skills, or thats what was combined together to form the 5 Levels to All Dragon skills?

If Spike has ignited his internal mana fire, does that now make him Godzuki class? As in this is just the pilot flame, now he has to get a Pyro expert to help firing up the preheat burners before he can even achieve primary ignition?

He currently has a 3 fold magical form within him. Is Twilight going to be busy with Canterlot duties to realise, or is she going to be able to consider magical forms, in that 3 form is triangular tiling, which can cover flat or curved when distorted, 4 fold is flat, but 5 fold not only give aperiodic tiling, but can ahve a whole range of useful abilities, like 5 fold symetry in nature etc?

The Time for completion is so that it just gives Twilight time to respond the first time, then the Completion Reward kicks in, then he gets Twilights second attempt immediately after?

[1batman4u]

By igniting your internal energy system, you have doubled your base mana capacity.

Wonderful buff!

A doubled mana reserve means Spike can use Dragon's Eye more often, allowing him to copy Unicorn spells and Pegasi/EarthPony magic (flight, cloud-walking, enhanced strength, etc.).

[Ariamaki]

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However many bits he collected in fines, Spike is given the same amount of money for himself as a quest reward. Similar to a matching donation in a charity event, or a matched prize in a game show.

[TheStoryWe-ver]

This story is a good example of "Sure their stats are low. What skills do they have?"

By the time Spike grows even a year older, he's going to be amazingly powerful.

I have no complaints! Love it!

[AppleTank]

10163232
I'm now wondering if those bits are legal.

[Silver Starlight]

I went through all of this today in two sittings, and I'm thoroughly hooked!

[Lunar Beat]

This Fic is so good, reading a chapter just gets me so hyped for more. I'm really enjoying it.

[dzamie]

This was a very satisfying concluding chapter for an arc, and oh boy what a nice, solid hit that last set of boxes gave me. Spike, your learning under Twilight may have led you to unlock a late-game powerup ridiculously early.

[Ariamaki]

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Oh just to clarify, we're still not quite done here. Spike needs to figure out that Proof, after all: I will definitely agree this was the climax point of the arc though. Finishing the quest is more of a denouement than anything.

[Moonlit_Stardust]

10164043

If the timelines where I think it is, then I think I know what that “proof” will be.

I think it’s about time for (another?) status page to give everyone reading a sense of where all of his Skills, Stats, Titles and what not are at!

Also what are all of the Various Tribes Base mana pools and how do the compare to Spikes, on that thought how does Spikes Mana pool (as of this update) compare to an Alicorn?

[djthomp]

This will lead to excellence or permanent injury There's one easy way to know: Go, go go

Or death. Have you considered that it might lead to death, Spike?

"Stagnet."

The swirling trinity of colors halted dead in the spiral of his gut, and immediately he could feel the burning agony he remembered from his earlier brush with Mana Confusion.

Oh wow, that was definitely a risky thing to try.

[Layer] (Active) Lv 1 EXP: 0.0% MP: 100+ (minimum cost)
Layer as in 'one who lays on hands', a concept often reserved for holy folk and greater magic-users. This skill allows the user to bless those around them with a touch, passing along magical energy to enhance the body. A critical prerequisite in the creation of greater blessings.

Any magical buff the user has received is recorded in an index (shared with Dragon's Kitchen).
By spending a large amount of MP, these buffs may be generated without the need for materials.
Layer buffs always stack with other sources of the same or similar buffs, acting additively together.

Oh wow x2, that's a strong ability. Powerful buffing, both personal and sharable.

Now that you've touched it? You're back to exclaim: The spiraling shape is alive and it's awake .

Neat, and ever so slightly concerning.

That's gotta be the last of the First Day big rewards and changes, surely.

[Bones_]

That's fucking COOL.

[ArcherStern]

OP character build is a go. I can't wait to see what Spike will do from here.

Opinion of first day: Nice

[EnderHooves]

This will lead to excellence or permanent injury There's one easy way to know: Go, go go

Delectable Tea?
Or Deadly Poison?
Awesome! Igniting the energy system like this is an amazing feat.

[Charles Farrow]

By the end of this Spike will be an absolutely broken support.
He's got the power of God and Anime on his side, all should bow and be blessed in his presence.

[Aunty Furby]

10171201
I'm dieing of laughter

[Sorenleonidas5]

10272055
THE KING THE KING OOOF DRAGOONS IS BORN BOW DOWN TO THE KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

[Black--Soul]

Damn... One fine push before the main quest conclusion! This Dragon will kick major ass next time a villain comes around That or he flex so hard they surrender

[Black--Soul]

Spike becomes the Drace of his dreams

[Cheshirek4t]

10464944
Spike T. Dragon the eighth Victorious

[ThatGuyTookMyUserName]

This will lead to excellence
or permanent injury
There's one easy way to know:
Go, go

Gadget

" Stagnet ."

[YharimTheJungleTyrant]

10373207
How about NO

[Black--Soul]

Spikes final improvment. Time to reap his hard work reward.

[hades21]

10464944