Overpowered Wizard

Zarian looked at his last journal notes from the night before. ‘She told me what she wants for her birthday. It’s quite simple. And it can happen after Grimrock…’

He stopped reading that section and flipped over to the notes Para had written for him. Smiling a little, he reread Para’s notes before he put the leather-covered journal into the pocket dimension.

Naomi’s words from last night still lingered a little. But after a moment of peaceful contemplation, he set it aside. All of that personal stuff could wait until later.

The main quest to save Foodie mattered more.

Zarian floated above a flat castle courtyard. It was near the top of a sturdy mountain made of fortresses stacked over each other with verdant plantlife weaved between the gaps.

The courtyard wasn’t flat earlier. Hannah had repaved it with a wave of her hand, like a renovating demigoddess.

She floated in the air next to him, half using aura, and half using the help of her twelve baseball-shaped golems.

The little enchanted constructs orbited around her as if she was the center of their world, each one emitting pulses of force and energy that showed a hint of their true capabilities. Despite their size, each little golem was legendary and chock-full of high quality runes and powerful enchantments.

As her twelve little round golems spiraled casually around her, Hannah committed the finishing touches on the magic artillery battery. At the same time, she fed information from her mind to the spiders of Team Arty on how to operate the artillery battery and respond to calls for arty support.

Zarian smiled at the six tubular guns. Each one was fifty feet long and had a simple but heavy rectangular base to keep them grounded when firing.

With a few runic inputs through its enchanted display boards on their sides, the arty guns could turn to the left or right and angle up as far as eighty degrees.

Each arty gun could fit a 250mm elemental ball round, which was the only shape Hannah could work with best. Her enchantments wouldn’t work well with bullet-shaped rounds, at least not to her standards, which meant they had to accept a larger degree of inaccuracy than anyone would prefer.

However, Hannah had implemented more layers of enchantments to mitigate chances of any magic artillery round hitting too far out of the box. Or right on top of their heads.

Sometimes, the action and growth is so fast I can forget to appreciate the simple things, like magic arty rounds, Zarian thought amusingly. Hannah’s magical industrial revolution really boomed because of those books from Reiki’s library.

There was a reason the Dancing Librarian Dungeon usually stayed in the most secured and guarded location in Ride-or-Die Village, at least when Reiki wasn’t busy leading dungeon crawls or giving birth to another dungeon.

With Reiki back home, the magical knowledge inside her books was probably some of the most immensely influential reading material in this medieval-based world. A lot of those books contained forgotten knowledge, such as how to source and make coffee.

Zarian peeked over at Hannah as she tinkered a little more with her crafts and enchantments. She was also making more magic arty rounds and piling them inside their dumpster-sized containers.

From inside a gaping hollow pit further behind them, streams of high-quality metals and minerals flowed out under Hannah’s precise aura control.

She didn’t tire even though she’d been at this for hours. Her aura continued to run with the power of a tremendous generator. There seemed to be no end to her aura recovery.

Despite having all of this power and control, Hannah wasn’t one to waste anything. She had repurposed the materials from the enchanted cart they’d first used on their way here. The cart had ended up obsolete after Hannah made adjustments to the spatial satchels and increased their holding capacity.

Zarian had quite the laugh earlier when he saw Hannah pull out an entire cart the size of a truck trailer from her satchel. She’d turned it into parts for the artillery battery and the initial rounds.

Thankfully, Zarian’s six hundred spiders and their little wizard hats didn’t have to concern themselves with lifting the rounds as part of Team Arty. They had Hannah’s other golems for that, some of which were block-shaped golem men, and others were nothing much but automated golem limbs with big, wide clamps.

Each helpful golem had decent enough magic intelligence to follow rudimentary commands, even without Magi being here. However, having the spiders involved ensured any unpredictable problem that cropped up would get handled as creatively as needed, especially since Zarian had given the spiders free reins to use gravity spell arrays and enchantments as they saw fit.

And as an extra security measure, three hundred advanced skeletons held guard around the artillery site.

Zarian had noted various monster types lurking in these castle mountains. He doubted many would come running at the source of the explosive noises, but if any did, the advanced skeletons would meet them with an array of battle abilities and enchantments.

Zarian and Hannah wanted this merger of summons and crafts to work well together, setting up the combined arms and abilities of Team Arty for success.

This was doubly important, since the artillery rounds were some of the most powerful Hannah had created yet.

“I feel like I can actually call myself OP now,” Hannah said.

Zarian chuckled. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”

Hannah shook her head in disbelief. “We should’ve given ourselves longer than a day, Zarian. I’m barely grasping at all that I can do now. Aura Generator? Aura Mechanic? The skill advancements? I can craft and enchant so fast it’s dizzying even for me. I have to slow myself down to better understand my own radical power. It’s so different compared to before. I’m so different compared to before. It’s … amazing.”

Her face was flush with heat. She even seemed out of breath.

Zarian nodded. “I miss this version of you.”

Hannah bit the edge of her lip. She gave Zarian a few furtive, sidelong glances.

Then, with a huff, she said, “I’m sorry. I … treated you so harshly when you’ve done nothing but your best. And you took the best route you saw fit to save Bianca.”

“I wish what happened had happened differently,” Zarian said. “Maybe I should’ve killed that dragon instead of letting Bianca do it. Or maybe I could’ve waited instead of going all crazy dark. In the end, I was just confident that I would have a handle on everything until it turned out I didn’t.”

Hannah nodded. “Overconfidence can get anyone. I nearly killed myself with my own creation once, and that had left an impression on me for a little while. I just hope I can meet your expectations and be good enough.”

“You should already know you’ve exceeded my expectations. Besides, we’re doing so well I think we can take things slow-and-easy and still be OP.” He turned in the air toward her and held his arms open. “How about it, Hannah? Want to push around little mortals and have a taste of that sweet power fantasy ambrosia?”

Hannah tried to hold herself back. Then she smiled crookedly and flew into his arms for a tight embrace.

She hugged as hard and aggressively as she could while still constructing things in the background, boosting her physicality by a lot.

The average Level 70 warrior would’ve ended up crushed into bloody mush inside of Hannah’s embrace. Thankfully, Zarian was more than tough enough to handle her awkward but heartfelt affection.

He squeezed her back, showing his adoration for her, which hadn’t gone away despite the hard times.

“I don’t really want to hurt many people,” Hannah mumbled against his chest. “But I will admit I don’t mind wielding my power and enjoying the results of my power for reasons I see as reasonable. So, sure, let me see more of what it’s like to step on foolish, er, mortals who dare get in my, um, way.”

“There it goes. A future major goddess to be.” Zarian gave Hannah a few pats on her hard wizard hat before they broke the embrace.

Hannah looked back at her artillery guns, spiders, and golems. “It’s funny. We’re all the way over here, and other than wishing Magi could be here, I wish Rhea was here. She’s been a lot of help during those hard months. I can only imagine what her reactions would be if she saw how much has changed with me.”

“Maybe the next time you see her you can do something nice for her. It’ll make you look less arrogant as you casually flex how powerful you are. She’ll look up to you and think you’re all humble and kind. Trust me. It gets them every time.”

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“Hm. Well. I should do that. Thank you for letting me know. Once we get back to the village, she will have a lot more to look up to, really. Granted, she will have to be kneeling or she’ll literally look down at me.”

I don’t think Rhea minds that at all, Zarian thought before bursting into more laughter.

After he recomposed himself, he gave Hannah a once over and noted that she looked great and ready for battle.

She kept the lightweight bodysuit design but added some more padding around the torso, shoulders, elbows, and knees. Her gauntlets and boots were a little thicker.

Her hard wizard hat was fused with a smart-looking magitek helmet that covered the sides of her face and had a clear visor in front of her eyes.

The entire outfit was all black except for the dark red motto and cursive writing on her back and the little myriad elemental colors glowing along the seams. The entire material hugged her well-fed super body fittingly, and it was all legendary in quality.

The others had a few changes to their adventure outfits, but the schemes largely stayed the same.

Gilbert had heavy armor and his massively tough and boxy shield that could fold in and out of a vambrace. Naomi had a slick suit similar to Hannah’s, but Naomi’s outfit had no gloves, no shoes, leaving her bare at the end of her limbs. Bianca dressed in the fashion of a glamorous and armored princess, but a darkly clad one this time around, forgoing her previous light version.

Zarian stuck with his shadowy bottoms and boots, staying bare up top except for the Parasite Cloak +3 draping around his shoulders and down his back. Little shining starlight, like crystal dewdrops, glowed across the cloak’s dark red and leathery material.

With his muscles and unique style, Zarian’s current appearance worked well for him as an overpowered wizard.

But he could push it further, and he might want to do that once they got going.

Before making any final fashion decisions, he looked down at Bianca, Gilbert, and Naomi. They were enjoying breakfast and coffee around a small campfire Bianca had made.

Loner leaned against a lone block nearby. Slip the Sleipnir feasted from a box of fruits and nuts. Other spider teams stayed close by, numbering up to a thousand that would stick close to Zarian’s party.

Beyond that, nearly ten thousand spiders scouted around the castle mountains and further beyond Zarian’s aura range.

The network link to each spider remained strong, responsive, and easy to maintain because of the wizard hats.

Crisp and clear updates and impressions streamed through him, which he could handle well enough with the help of multiple mental-enhancing abilities, High Rune Mindframe +2 being chief among them.

It looks like there might be a few challenges here and there. Nothing crazy yet, but it’s not going to be as simple as stepping on ants when we get deeper into Operation Save The Cook.

He was also doubly glad for choosing to leave advanced skeletons to defend the arty site.

I’m almost tempted to leave Loner here just in case, but it feels important to bring him back to Grimrock. Even if it’s for sentimental reasons.

Loner looked up and met his necromancer’s gaze. The expert goblin skeleton nodded silently before looking off elsewhere.

Zarian nodded as well, feeling his decision was the right one. But he could do one more thing to ensure the safety of the artillery site.

“Let’s get coffee and breakfast before we head off,” Zarian told Hannah.

“Oh, right, food, caffeine, that’s still a thing. I’ll be right there. Just doing a last check and making a few more 250mm.”

Shaking his head amusingly at the stereotypical engineer, Zarian floated away.

He glanced up and examined the windy and dark weather above, which had gotten worse fairly fast. Zarian felt heavy magic and unusual aura activities up there.

It was subtle enough where he couldn’t trace the source. But it was overt enough for him to know a powerful person was getting involved.

Para gave him an impression that she would keep track of the strange weather and supernatural activities. Zarian appreciated that as he moved over to a few spectral spiders waiting on the fringes of the artillery battery.

He handed over the Scroll of Mountainous Castle Fusion and the Scroll of Death Blight. He gave them specific instructions to only activate the legendary onetime use items to stop anything that tried to overrun the artillery site.

The dutiful spiders saluted and held onto the scrolls. Zarian nodded and turned his attention to his other scrolls before pulling out the Scroll of Bestial Transformation.

Zarian examined the rolled up thing curiously as he floated over to the campfire hangout. Hannah was still tinkering some stuff for no reason other than to satisfy her perfectionism.

With a flex of his power, Zarian gently pulled Hannah over, forcing her to complete the last touches and leave the artillery battery well enough alone. They should be fine. Hopefully.

“Anyone want the beast transformation scroll?” Zarian asked. “I’m already enough of a beast, honestly.”

“How long did it take you to come up with that brilliant line?” Gilbert asked.

“The same time I needed to decide if troll sex was for me or not,” Zarian clapped back casually before noticing Bianca’s intense gaze from the other side of the fire. “You, Bianca? Beast scroll?”

“Do you think I can be a pretty princess and beast? Like a pretty princess beast?” she asked, before shooting a glance at Naomi.

The Rumble Psion ignored everyone.

Zarian smirked a little before saying, “Yeah, I think you can be. Here ya go.” He tossed Bianca the scroll, and she stuffed it into her satchel.

Zarian settled down into a spot next to Naomi. Hannah fell in between Bianca and Gilbert.

The Runic Engineer fidgeted constantly, deconstructing and reconstructing stuff around them at a cyclic rate. Cubic chunks of the floor turned into random enchanted shapes and simple items with simple magic effects before getting deconstructed and remade with different runes applied.

“You really can’t turn yourself off, can you?” Gilbert asked in between long sips of his coffee.

“Well, um, yes and no. I don’t really want to turn anything off right now.” Hannah twirled a lock of her brown hair with a finger. “You know, I have so much to say that I get tongue tied? Well, I’ll just say this. I’m just happy to be here with all of you. Thank you.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Not now. Save that for after the operation,” Naomi grunted. “And, Bianca, don’t start crying. Don’t you there.”

“Yes, you are right. No tears. Must be fierce. Then the cry fest afterward. That’ll feel amazing.” Bianca’s eyes shone with glee for all the after-op tears in the future.

Zarian snorted.

Para dumped a small hill of corpses and piles of fresh, bloody meat behind him. She turned the cloak into snapping jaws and slender feminine arms.

The parasite jaws feasted on the fresh and warm meat. The parasite arms handed boxed meal after boxed meal to Zarian.

It’s barely enough, Zarian thought hungrily, chowing through dozens and dozens of boxes. The endless pit in his stomach found no satisfaction. Will I need to eat fresh meat like Para?

They ran out of boxed meals. Zarian turned and picked the most appealing corpse that was far from human. He paused, thinking of his humanity.

Fuck it.

He went all in.

He became less human. More of Para’s nature revealed itself through Zarian, but with structure and purpose.

Zarian’s jaws shifted. He grew great and sharpened teeth. His body became more muscular, more powerful.

Claws extended from his fingers. Dark red plates of hard bone appeared in segments over his torso with tough and flexible meshing in the gaps.

He soon became an armored and monstrous juggernaut, the parasite threads weaving with his shadowy bottoms and wizard hat, turning those into something similar to the rest of him.

Para pushed the boundaries further by shifting the cloak into mantis scythes, bone-tipped tentacles, and alien-like arms. Around the shoulders, three serpentine heads that wound and waved and flexed from behind Zarian. The monstrous and toothy wizard hat on his head was barely much of a signifier to his role as wizard.

Fully transformed, he looked like a boss monster from some hellish dungeon. He looked like a nightmarish chimera man, with an impenetrable darkness under the hat’s brim, draping over his face.

The darkness only pulled away to reveal his monstrous jaws as he sank face first into meat and bone. The three serpentine heads slithered over his shoulders and lunged forth into the meal with him.

After a few minutes, the massive pile of food was all gone.

Zarian crunched down the last few spinal bones that remained before he finally felt satisfied.

He slowly turned to the others, his jaw shifting back to human with a crunch and snap. Then, with a dark voice, he asked, “Do you think me and Para make for pretty beasts?”

Nobody said anything, still at a loss for words. Then Para spoke through her serpent mouths.

“I should be above disapproval, but I think it will hurt now, especially with me merging further with my host for this temporary form of ours. I will not push you for your approval, of course. This is part of the process of achieving true personhood, even if it means rejection.”

Bianca broke first, and the others followed with a rain of compliments. Loner even joined in and clapped his skeletal hands together.

In no time, everyone around the artillery site gave their approval with open applause. Clearly, Zarian and Para won the hidden contest for who was the most fashionable going into the operation.

Para tried not to let it get to her, but Zarian felt her relief.

After he had some coffee, they went off and began Operation Save The Cook.

Tactical Naomi and Fighter Gilbert strode at the front with Loner and Slip next to them.

Bianca remained an unknown factor as she meandered in the middle.

Gunner Hannah floated near the back with two man-sized cannons and a dozen little round golems orbiting her.

And Zarian, playing as a traditional wizard, stayed next to Hannah with a thousand spiders following to cover their immediate rear.

“Are we really just going to walk to the middle of the paladins’ camp?” Gilbert asked behind him.

“Yes,” Bianca answered merrily.

“And then you’re gonna just kill the Prime Archbishop and that’s that for the paladins?”

“Yes!”

“Seriously?”

“Very serious. I even have a phrase for the moment. I’ve been working on it even before you got in bed with the trolls!” Bianca cheered.

Hannah barked out a laugh, sounding quite merry. Slip let out a horsey laugh at his rider’s expense. And Loner shook his head at all of them for being silly.

“God Almighty, I’m really getting stoned here,” Gilbert muttered.

“You did the crime, so learn to suffer for some time,” Naomi quipped.

“What’s the phrase?” Zarian asked Bianca.

“Ahem, ahem.” Bianca tilted her chin up. “Hello, my name is Princess Bianca Garcia. I must kill you for my familia. Prepare to die!”

“I really like those words, Bianca. Truly, you are the most creative of geniuses. I wonder if I can ever be as creative,” Para said from her serpent mouths.

Bianca tilted her chin up even higher and smiled smarmily.