New Life As A Max Level Archmage

When Vivi returned to Vanguard with Saffra in tow, her intended mission of ambushing Shel Donovan was interrupted. There were no fewer than seven individuals crowded around the bulletin board, vying to inspect something posted there.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. “The next Quest is in?” Vivi asked.

Everyone looked over. Eshara was the one to respond. “It seems so, Guildmaster. And it’s a good thing we’ve made plans for recruitment.”

Vivi walked up and accepted the paper that Eshara unpinned from the cork to present to her—nobody had touched the Quest out of respect, choosing instead to elbow each other to peer at it from a safe distance. Vivi mentally rolled her eyes at the behavior. It’s just a piece of paper. And you’re all members too.

The Quest read:

***

~ Mythic Quest ~

The Restoration of Vanguard, Stage Three

Aspiring heroes begin to fill the ranks of a once-great guild, but for an organization that wishes to lead the world into a brighter age, there are still far too few members occupying its halls.

In some ways, the journey has just begun.

Task:

- Induct one hundred members total into Vanguard’s ranks.

Rewards:

- Progress Guild Tier from two to three.

- One item harvested from the Maw of the Abyss will be reforged into a Lv. 2000 relic with no level requirement.

- Regain full access to Vanguard’s vault.

***

“Oh,” Vivi said upon reaching the last line. Everything else, she and Rafael had predicted. “The vault’s going to unlock? That’s good.”

“Is it not already unlocked?” Zael asked.

“Sort of,” Vivi said. “We only have access to the crafting materials.”

Zael looked baffled. “How did that happen?”

His confusion was understandable. The fact that a good portion of Vanguard’s riches had vanished into thin air, apparently held hostage by the System, was highly unusual. But not any more unusual than Vivi being torn between worlds, or having jumped far past the theoretical level cap.

“Not sure. The crafting materials only appeared after we finished the first-stage quest.” Half lost in thought, she added, “It’ll be nice having my team’s gear back. I’m not entirely certain what’ll be down there.”

Her knowledge of the game didn’t always match this world’s reality; her personal vault had proven that much. But also, she couldn’t have memorized everything her guild had stockpiled in the first place. Everyone’s primary gear set would be inside, probably, but beyond that? It was anyone’s guess what the vault would be cluttered with.

“We’ll need to find new homes for a lot of it,” Vivi mused. “Our gear is too useful to let sit around.”

Her private collection of items had been maxed out and meant for herself, and she could still make use of the various equipment if the situation called for it. The other members of the Party of Heroes couldn’t utilize their old gear for obvious reasons. And the guild vault was much larger than her personal one. Vault audits had happened once in a blue moon, and the spring cleaning when it did arrive hadn’t been thorough. There would be a lot of miscellaneous lower-leveled gear gathering dust.

‘Lower-leveled’ meaning items Titled would drool over, of course.

The group in front of her had gone quiet at Vivi’s words, something she realized late thanks to her idle ruminations.

Mae was the one who spoke up. “It would be understandable if you didn’t want to hand out your team’s legacy, my lady…”

Vivi didn’t understand the implication right away, then winced when she did.

Vanguard’s vault should have immense sentimental value to the last surviving member.

And she guessed she felt that way, despite not fully being Vivisari. A certain melancholy filled her when she thought about how the Party of Heroes had died and left her alone. No matter how many distractions this chaotic new life brought, she did miss those four—and their avatars by proxy.

Yet the Heroes hadn’t been her friends. Orion, Rory, Nadia, and Alex were the people she cared about. Taking solace in the knowledge that they were fine somewhere on Earth didn’t eliminate the emptiness entirely, though. But what was there to do about it?

“Orion and Rorik would scold me if we didn’t put our wealth to good use.” She had to remind herself to use their proper names. “Naia would probably want me to host a tournament to decide who gets her stuff, just for the chaos the event would bring. Funnily enough, we’re doing that already, halfway. Axian wouldn’t want his collection sitting and gathering dust for its own sake. Cool weapons are meant to be used and admired. There’s a reason he changed his entire loadout every other week.” She huffed in amusement.

“It’s fine,” she concluded. “It would be honoring their memory. I’m not going to let it all languish in a vault forever.”

“You’re right, of course.” Mae offered a sad, wistful smile. The original craftsmen of Vanguard had known the Heroes too, and Vivi’s friends had been more outgoing than her. Vanguard’s staff had probably been close with them, or at least their relationships hadn’t been quite as professional as the Sorceress’s.

Silence lingered for a moment. Vivi moved past the somber topic. “A hundred members isn’t as bad as I feared, though that’s still a lot of candidates to track down. There’s no time limit, but we don’t want to be lazy either.” She tilted her head and scanned the group in front of her. “Most of you are going to be climbing through the tournament, right? If you run into anyone promising, feel free to make an offer.”

A ripple of surprise went through the collected adventurers. Vivi wondered why—then realized how, in their eyes, it must have been a rather heavy mission she had dropped onto their shoulders so suddenly.

Zael straightened. “I will find at least one you consider worthy, Guildmaster. You have my word on it.”

Embarrassed, Vivi almost waved him off and told him that he shouldn’t take the offhand request so seriously. But that wasn’t true. She did want him to. Vanguard’s recruitment mattered. The instinctual reaction hadn’t bubbled up because she disliked sincerity, either. She supposed it was that old recurring problem—that she didn’t like everyone taking her so seriously.

“Thank you,” Vivi said. “We’ll all do our part, I hope.”

“It’s a big responsibility, picking out who’s going to join Vanguard and having our judgment trusted,” Jasper said.

Vivi found something deeply amusing about Jasper talking about responsibility. But then she reminded herself: he rises to the occasion when he needs to. She wouldn’t forget how he had acted during the Convoy’s derailing.

“Tempted to start handing out invitations to people on the street?” she asked him dryly.

He looked scandalized. “Of course not. I was thinking buckets of tickets.”

“Buckets… of tickets?”

“I’ll throw them out of a bell tower. One winning number, a lottery. Luck is a virtue of its own, so let’s filter for it.” He puffed his chest out, proud of the idea.

Vivi huffed, mildly entertained, and Mae glowered at the ranger. Jasper winked back at the elf, only to get an elbow to the stomach.

“Rafael will be vetting everyone, and I’ll give my input as well, so it’s not blind faith,” Vivi said. “Though I do trust each of you, of course. Do your best, that’s all I can ask.”

Jasper lazily saluted her, and she appreciated his more relaxed response compared to the grave expressions and nods of everyone else.

Vivi pinned the paper back on the board. “I’ll talk with Rafael more later, but it’s what we expected. Not much to say.” It followed the trend of the previous two Quests, and while the next relic reward and the unlocking of the vault would be interesting, they just had to wait and see what it spat out.

Vivi and Saffra trekked over to the dining area, placed an order with Shel, and slid into their respective seats at the bar. A few moments of quiet passed before Saffra spoke up. She sounded hesitant.

“So. I was thinking about that question you asked me a while ago.”

Vivi tried to place what Saffra was talking about but failed. “Which question?”

“About whether I wanted to pursue a specialty.”

“Oh?” Vivi sat up straighter. “You’ve given that more thought?”

The conversation had ended on an ambiguous note. Saffra had said that all she cared about was functionality. The exact spells she learned didn’t matter; she wanted whatever made her into an effective adventurer. Into someone who could help people.

“I did.”

“What did you decide?”

“I wouldn’t say decide. It’s just an idea right now. Something we could consider?”

“A well-rounded arsenal is never a bad choice. But specialties exist for a reason. It’s not a bad idea to focus on one branch in particular. What are you thinking?”

Vivi’s preference for learning every magical discipline probably had to do with the fact that she could pick up spells a hundred times faster than other archmages. The calculus changed a lot for ‘regular people,’ who had to choose what to spend their time on.

“You’re pioneering a whole branch of magic right now,” Saffra said. “It’s still in the early stages, but it sounds like you’re going to be making something legitimate out of it. And while I might not be a blank canvas who hasn’t even reached level one hundred… I’ve been doing some thinking. Low gold is bronze as far as you’re concerned. For what you want me to do in the future. So I’m basically at the start of my career, if you look at the big picture.”

Saffra seemed to take psychic damage at her own statement, and Vivi could interpret why. Gold was a respectable rank. But Saffra was right; the lofty achievement might as well be bronze for what Vivi intended. Meaning Titled, at the very low end.

As for the implication…

“You want to become a void specialist,” Vivi surmised.

“Like master like apprentice, right? And void’s an element, if you think about it. It’ll fit right in.”

Vivi’s eye twitched at the incorrectness of that claim, but she knew Saffra was joking. “It would be interesting seeing what skills you develop. You’d be the first dedicated student of the field. I’m getting related abilities myself, but I assume I’m too broadly a generalist to be assigned… well, specialist skills, by the System.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“There are real concerns, though. It’s a new field.” It had been invented yesterday, literally. “I have one prototype for an attack spell that is not remotely up to my standards, and it’s not versatile. And while I can say I’m confident that I’ll be able to turn High Arcana into a better harness for void energies and flesh out a real arsenal down the road, that’s yet to be seen. Is it something you want to stake your future on?”

“If the Sorceress is confident about something, I don’t think the risk is that big,” Saffra pointed out. “But also, I wouldn’t be locking myself into anything. By the time I’m a hundred levels higher, you’ll have figured out whether you can make a proper branch of magic out of it.”

“That’s true. But it doesn’t invalidate what I said. Time lost is time lost, and diluting your current specialty will have detrimental effects. Nothing serious though. I’m probably overstating things.” She just didn’t want to blindly agree and was thinking aloud. She had a responsibility to guide her apprentice to the best of her ability.

A few more moments passed as Vivi mulled the topic over.

“I suppose the bigger question is how effective void magic will be relative to your level,” she said. “The current design is… complex.” Even Solfirus hadn’t been able to grok it right away. “I would need to simplify the architecture. Weaker versions of voidglass do seem easier to alchemize, so I’ll be able to make something that works for you before long, but still.” 

She hummed, ideas sparking by the dozen. Until then, she hadn’t considered how to reduce the spell’s intricacy. There was so much left to figure out about void energy despite her breakthrough. Because of the breakthrough.

“Assuming I manage to get the spell down to tier five, will it behave like tier six or tier seven spells?” Vivi asked. “Or would it be just as powerful as a normal nullifying invocation? If not weaker than typical approaches?”

“You think it might be weak for the tier?” Saffra looked shocked, like she hadn’t considered the possibility.

“Well, no. I doubt it. But we don’t know. We don’t know much of anything is the general point I’m making.”

Saffra didn’t seem put off by the warning. “Better to start early. It’s a gamble that seems worth taking.”

“Maybe. Not even maybe—you’re almost certainly right.” She shrugged. “If that’s what you want, I’ll start working on a simplified version as soon as I can.”

Saffra bit her lip. “It won’t be a distraction?”

“No.” Of course, it technically would be. “Even if it is, it’s supplemental research into void magic. You can’t streamline a spell without deeply understanding the original. It’ll help me learn more about the subject.”

“That makes sense.” Saffra’s worry faded a degree, but lingered. As always, she seemed far too hesitant to take up Vivi’s time. “Then… cool. You really think it’s a good idea?”

“There’s undeniable value in versatility, and you should learn basic spells like [Telekinesis] and [Illusion] if you want to be an adventurer. But for your primary specialty? I can see a lot of potential in focusing on void energy. Powerful nullifying effects are useful in most situations, and it’s also likely to be potent for its tier. Then there’s however the System decides to reward you for being a specialist in a brand-new category of magic.” She could see why Saffra had floated the prospect.

Saffra bobbed her head in agreement, tail swishing behind her. She was clearly pleased that Vivi condoned the strategy. “I think it’s what I want to go for, then. Tentatively.”

“I’ll see what I can make happen.”

I just hope it’s not too tricky wrangling the spell into something simpler, she thought. Especially a design easy enough for Saffra to use.

The challenge, as most magical ones did, had her excited to get her hands dirty.

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