Excerpt from The Profound and Pretty Princess' Ultimate Guide to Cultivation, Captivation, Cuteness, and Carving Your Way to the Top, English Edition (the worst-selling guide in the history of Putijama)

On Proper Spellcasting

Spells and skills – the difference between the two is semantics! – are generally quite easy to use if you follow the 'instructions'. For most skills, it's pretty easy to feel spiritually how much mana to feed into it before you are positive the skill will activate. A little practice and it becomes essentially automatic to do so.

The general recommendation from most delving guides is to just push in the mana needed because not doing so can lead to pretty bad outcomes, depending on the situation. But of course, anyone reading a delving guide also thinks they're destined for great things.

Just be aware of the general guidance…

While all skills will activate if you put in the 'required' amount of mana, most people try to drive that amount lower. That, of course can have dire consequences if you get it wrong.

The last thing you want is your finishing fireball to flame out.

If the amount of mana fed to the skill is not enough, the mana is wasted but the spell fails to activate. It's like if you get someone you're courting a bad gift: your money is out the window and you also will 'fail to activate', if you know what I mean. Yes, I stick by this euphemism.

Reducing Casting Costs for Man-Made Spells

The more you work on a skill, the more you can alter the amount of mana used to activate it. However, the actual effectiveness/power of the skill can only be changed if the user allocates essence to it – or buys it with essence already allocated to the skill.

A typical [Fireball] spell uses twelve mana if you assume the standard starting pool for mana is about 100*. There are stronger and weaker versions but twelve mana is standard.

A Tier 1 who has the skill for a few years and uses it regularly can usually drive that down to ten. It won't pack quite as much of a punch – the power of a spell is somewhat based on the amount of mana you put into it – but it's not a huge difference.

The general rule of thumb is that for every 20% less mana used, the spell has 5% less 'power', however power might be defined. Researchers have theorized – and it's not rocket science** to see why – that there is simply a cost to activating the skill in general which can be lowered and then the rest of the mana is fed into the skill's power.

While it seems strange, at least to me, to have the actual activation cost be the thing people can change the most – shouldn't you be able to overpower the spell with way more mana?! – it has been repeatedly tested. This phenomenon is exclusive to man-made skills. Rift-dropped skills have perfect activation costs.

There is a small amount of wiggle room on man-made spells to put more mana into the actual spell effect side. But it also is not that effective in making a spell more powerful. [Fireball] was designed to take twelve mana so giving it twenty only increases the power about 20%.

For man-made skills, the artisans who actually craft and tinker with the skill structures have a hard time perfecting the activation part of almost every skill. If they drive the cost of activation lower, almost inevitably, the spell takes up far more room in someone's essence channels, so it isn't worth it for almost anyone.

Increasing/Decreasing the Effectiveness/Power for Skills

If a skill has no essence allocated to it, simply put, you can't really alter the power level. For man-made skills, lowering the amount of mana used in activation will slightly decrease the power of the skill but that's about it. And almost every man-made skill is sold with no essence because people can pay for that if they want it.

However, if someone has put essence into a skill, the user has far more wiggle room in how much power – both greater and lesser than normal power – the spell has. It's rather intuitive to do as well with most people reporting it took at most three tries to figure it out.

The math of the change in spell effectiveness is different for every skill and often every person. It's frustrating but alas, some things just work like that. The general rule of thumb is a 20% increase in mana nets a 15% increase in effectiveness. After that, for every 10% increase in mana, expect a 5% or less bump to the skill's effect.

* And yes, the starting mana pool is different for everyone and even harder to judge if you don't use an AAI! But we need to quantify things so we're going for it! Thus, the average starting mana pool is usually said to be about 100.

** Rocket science is the study of shooting things into space and, ya know, not having them blow up and having it all go where you want. It's a lot of math and very boring!

I wasn't sure which hit me harder, the shock of seeing the flamboyantly dressed man's head falling slowly from his shoulders to settle into his lap or the absolute flood of essence from his death. One made me nauseous, the other threatened to overwhelm my essence channels but gave me an intoxicating rush.

Nina was clearly shoving the essence away from herself spiritually and, with both of us close to the headless body and sporting a rift essence allocation bracelet apiece, Steve and I were the most likely destinations.

But neither of us could take in any more essence, full up from the day's delves.

Thinking quickly, I shoved the essence the only place I could think of: my ring.

It drank greedily and I wondered just what the outcome would be.

The next two seconds were a heady affair as I got my body back under control. I could feel Steve had allocated the Tier 3 essence to his intelligence-enhancing circlet.

Hopefully we didn't just create a supervillain or something. Maybe just someone who can more effectively beg for food?

I decided to check in on that later.

That is, until Steve started chirping loudly while pushing thoughts of 'bad' and 'cute animals' simultaneously. Then, he began rhythmically hammering on his backpack bathysphere, two hits then a pause.

The calming feelings I sent back his way did little.

"Nina, what the… what were you thinking?" I asked in almost a whisper. While a yell felt more appropriate, my emotions were raw, wrung out after just too much happening.

The Councilor looked to me, a manic fire still burning in her eyes. She grinned, her teeth looking poised to rip out my throat. The spark of madness faded quickly, Nina snapping her head to the man in the corner, Travis' assistant, as he cried out and fainted like a cliche woman in an old movie, hand to head and all.

Steve seemed to quiet at the same time, which at least lowered some of the confusion and nausea for me.

Looking slowly around the room, Nina took in the headless corpse still spurting blood across an enchanted outfit that maintained its perfect white coloring despite the coppery mess attempting to stain it.

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"Shit," she muttered softly before strength returned to her posture. "You three," she said to Pavel, Inara, and Romie, "meet me here." She presumably sent them information via AAI as Inara nodded.

The next second, I was slung over the Councilor's back, yet again, as she rushed from the building. Alarms were starting to blare across the Town Hall but no one tried to impede our path.

As Nina took me to the northwest side of town at a sustained pace that would make Usain Bolt look like a grandpa with a walker, I tried to engage her in conversation.

"Councilor Asani? Nina? Want to explain what just happened?" I asked.

All I got was a series of grunts from her footfalls and a few small snuffles she tried to hide.

While it was a quick journey, it was not a comfortable one.

One and a half stars. Not the worst trip but would not recommend.

Finally, as we were slowing down I pushed off her back before she could set me down, landing moderately gracefully. I wanted to regain at least a bit of dignity if possible.

Turning to look at the woman, my heart sank. Her once-manic face now looked resigned. But she couldn't hide her anguish. Not from me, probably not from anyone.

It wasn't hard to understand why.

Her worst nightmare might have just come to pass.

The killing of a noble, especially a foreign one, could justify Chazin Mark – or The Monetary Might Kingdom through Chazin Mark – to come after Velez, the city she loved so much. The fact she killed him in a space that was designated as safe made it all the worse.

Exactly what she'd come to the city to prevent might occur specifically because of her own actions.

"Nina, we have the evidence to prove he was committing a serious crime at the very least if not outright treason. It's a huge deal to interfere with someone on a city-sponsored delve, right? I think it will all be okay."

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #65: Sometimes you have to tell the kind white lies people want to hear, even when both sides know it isn't true. It shows them you're on their side, willing to put your own credibility at risk to make them feel just that little bit better.

"That is utter horseshit and you know it," she said, though the haunted look retreated all the same, replaced with a small, grim smile.

"Uh, care to explain why you took me outside the wall to this lovely copse of trees? It is very pretty but—" I stopped at her look, clearly not willing to deal with any humor.

"You deserve safety so I shall ensure that first before I face whatever lies ahead. I do not… I am not sure why I was that angry." She clucked, halfway between an angry chuckle and a sob. "Not to say trying to harm you is something of small importance, it is just—"

I held up my hand. "I get you, no worries."

We lapsed into silence for a few moments, me taking out a rather incensed sugar glider, trying to mollify him with treats but finding none in his protective cage.

Must have forgot to refill those last two.

"So… why am I here?" I ventured again.

Nina's expression of embarrassment tickled me slightly. Despite everything that had just happened, murdering a man in what I'd call 'warmish blood at best' and trying to execute another person without trial, she still felt the need to look in control. "Your Tier 4 guard escorting you to Pitola will be here shortly. Once he arrives, I shall return to Chazin Mark to… smooth things over."

"Will that work?" I asked on reflex, immediately regretting it.

"No, no it will not. At least not entirely. But I think we can reach an agreement that will at least prevent further bloodshed and I hope to avoid any retaliation against our city." I noticed her use of 'our city' and felt a bit closer to the troubled woman if she thought of me as one of Velez's own. "My fine will likely be high enough that I may be eating potatoes and Tier 1 rift gorilla for a few months to maybe years. However, I will bounce back, always do." She had injected a bit of her typical self-belief and bravado into the last sentence.

Before I could respond, a man in a bright orange cloak crested a hill. He was skipping.

My chuckle turned into a full belly laugh, the tension of the situation defusing at the rather comical sight. Steve started laughing too, sending ideas of 'silly' and 'pretty' along.

Damn, those thoughts upgraded quick.

Then he sent 'hungry' along as per usual and I reached into my spatial storage sack, giving him a small snack. I was tempted to pull out one of the 'experiments' from my spatial ring but thought as it was seven days since I'd put things it, whatever came out was likely to be… not pretty.

The man stopped and gave a quick twirl, sending his cloak spinning about as he pranced on the spot. "Councilor Asani, I am ever at your service. Any kind of service you desire," he said with a wink before actually taking in her face. "Oh, not the time for flirting. Hmm." The man, sporting long wavy blonde hair and a sparkling green eye – the other was scarred over – reached out and patted her head like one would a puppy that just hurt its paw. "There, there or something?"

Wow… Wait, how did I know he was winking?

Before I could ask who the hell he was, the man squared up to me. "You must be my babysitting assignment. Not exactly what I was expecting but such is life, always full of fun surprises! And no, I will not tuck you in at night. Probably? I'm Sasa. Wait, I thought there were four of you."

What the shit?

Steve shrieked indignantly, clearly holding out five fingers across two hands.

At that moment, I spotted three figures in the distance, sending a quick AAI message to confirm it was my team.

Pavel answered like a normal person, Romie waved instead of sending a reply, and Inara sent a rather rude rhyming poem about me having relations with an undead pig from a rift near Pitola.

She had to have that saved somewhere to send that quickly, right?

Once they arrived, Nina gave Sasa the instructions to take us to Pitola as fast as possible. When he nodded and motioned for everyone to follow, she looked him in the eye. "No, I mean truly as fast as possible."

He laughed, popping a rickety-looking cart out of his storage sack. It consisted of two long poles for someone to pull and two large wooden wheels under a splinter-laden box that was about six feet long (1.8m) and three feet wide (0.9m). The tarp to cover it was bright orange like his cloak.

It could hold one person comfortably and two could probably squeeze in and it not be too bad next to each other. But we had four; there was no way we could all sit and fit.

This is going to suck.

"Go with stealth, not fashion," Nina called as Sasa changed his cloak to one that blended well with the grass along the road with an ostentatious flourish and a little leap. The tarp changed to one of plain canvas. The Councilor parted, a wry smile on her face, as she saw the four humans crammed into the small wooden contraption, Steve riding on Sasa's shoulders, as the man secured the cover over the cart and started sprinting full speed towards the largest city in the null essence zone.

***

Steve Carver, Pugilist, Unchallenged and Unrepentant Leader of The Order of the Ever-Consuming Glider, Goodest Boy

This whole day had been bad.

Well, mostly the later part.

He had gotten a few good treats during the rifts before that, especially when he won good prizes from the shimmery things.

Even the weird place that tried to tell him everything was cute when it wasn't was at least interesting.

But then, it was lots of yelling with a bunch of angry feelings from his bond.

A little later, lots of scary monster sounds, bad smells, and worse feelings through his link, including his ride and main food source getting an ouchie.

After that, it was even more yelling and bad feelings with running, bouncing him around in his metal cage.

Gotta pee! Take me out!

Being trapped in a fully closed box for so long, Steve still had to go to the bathroom and hadn't been able to for so long.

His bond kept pushing back a feeling of not safe when Steve demanded to be let out.

I take care of me! Just punch bad faces!

And not seeing what was going on was frustrating. The backpack had a little clear bubble behind his bond's head but it was still hard to see!

Head get smaller! Unfair! Take me out!

Steve felt his anger rising from not being listened to.

Suddenly, after more running and yelling, he felt the mental push, like something was trying to attack his brain again.

NOT NOW STINKY DEER!

Except it wasn't exactly like earlier in the day. It was almost the opposite, telling him to attack. But he could strangely sense it wasn't targeted at him.

Need to warn!

As the bond popped his head up into the top dome on his backpack to look, Steve felt the power coming from the corner where a sweaty man was standing.

The sugar glider started chittering loudly, hammering on his enclosed cage with two thumps then a pause to say it was like the second weird place of the day.

He also sent an image of the deer from earlier and the thought of a bad person to really drive it home.

Bond not get? So dumb, only Steve thinks! I am the best!

Steve felt an incredible surge of the icky mind power, causing him to scream.

Suddenly, he sensed the 'kinda mean lady' move, so quickly she'd stopped before Steve registered she'd even started.

A massive wave of the weird energy that made him strong and smart rushed at him, like his strong – if not very smart – bond had killed more bosses than he had fingers and toes combined.

It felt gross, like not his kind of energy, so Steve reacted instantly, pushing it all into his circlet.

OUCHIE!

His headache was instantaneous and one of the most painful things he'd experienced in his short – but glorious – life.

It only lasted a few seconds, quickly fading as he also felt the push from the 'icky' person disappear in the corner. He more sensed than saw the man collapse, the bond's eyesight still a bit blurry from his prior injury.

Steve realized something had changed, something fundamental. It would transform everything, he knew instinctively.

I wonder how to open those last treat releases in here.

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