Overpowered Wizard

“We know,” Gilbert replied. “I knew it the moment you faced down that Sinfeast false idol and didn’t call on us.”

Zarian swallowed his shame and kept speaking. “I want to avoid that for the next time. Things got way out of hand. Again.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “The growth was great. Really, really great. But what it could’ve cost us was too much. So I have ideas about an auxiliary SOP we should use. It’s going to be important now, because we will attract even bigger and badder enemies the further along we go.”

“They want to eat you, Zarian,” Hannah said. “I can tell that much from the worldwide notifications and speculate what this means with the evil side. It won’t just be Sinfeast looking for a way to have your power. Maybe not just the major gods, either. Maybe the lesser divine beings would try, too. Maybe there are other mortals along our journey who can consume you and take Overwhelming Darkness.”

“And the fake good guys want to lock you up and throw away the key, regardless of how that can ruin the sanctity of redemption,” Gilbert said, looking out to the lake. “It seems like we’re entering the deeper waters, and out here there are a bunch of big critters swimming like they smelled blood.”

“Yeah, yup, everything you guys are saying is what I’m thinking and feeling,” Zarian said. “So I want to try being more careful. Not just because of our enemies, either. My Overwhelming Darkness is evolving as I cultivate it more. It’s becoming different, and along the way, it’s becoming more personal, and more dangerous.”

Bianca stopped what she was doing to look at him. “How can we help?”

“I’m going to cultivate at night, which will make things easier on me but also still leave me vulnerable. From now on, let’s assume that one or two mistakes can lead to me getting eaten or sealed away for tens of thousands of years. The night time is the best time for our enemies to strike unless I have time to switch from cultivation to Controlled Darkness or get back to baseline.”

“Ah, then we’ll have to rely on the good old fire watch,” Naomi drawled.

Zarian snorted before continuing. “During the day, I’m going hard on my studies, and not just for gravity. I have a lot of new spells to learn, and many of them are unique and high quality. They could make a big difference going forward. I’m also upgrading one of my spells on my own. I think that’s something I can try now, DIY spell advancements.”

“Interesting,” Hannah said. “If I’m not busy, I’d like to pick your brain and watch your process. Perhaps I can be your, um, wizard assistant when you go DIY on your spells.”

“No lie, that was a hella cute offer, Hannah. But, yeah, that’s all fine with me,” Zarian said.

Hannah nodded stiffly.

Zarian felt a weird and aggressive pressure coming from Naomi’s direction. He ignored it and carried on.

“I got some stuff upstairs you’ll be interested in looking at,” Zarian said. “Mostly legendary armors and weapons. But most importantly … bags of holding.”

“No!” Hannah said, jolting in her chair.

“Yes,” Zarian replied eagerly. “We have an extra one. Maybe you can do experiments on the extra.”

“I need that pronto. If I can figure out its enchantments for spatial storage and match them with the notes on Para’s pocket dimension, the possibilities would be ridiculous!”

Hannah looked like she was about to jump across the kitchen and shake the bags out of Zarian. She was barely holding herself back, which was funny to see.

“So, during the day, you will be okay,” Naomi said with a slight snarl, circling back to the main topic. “And at night, you’ll need more protection.”

“When will you sleep, Zarian?” Bianca asked.

“We’re at the point where we can go a couple of weeks without it,” Zarian said. “But let’s say I take a day off once a week. Going any longer without sleep would lead to exhaustion, lowering my vitality, and that’s no good for anybody.”

“Amen to that.” Gilbert stood up and walked over with his fishing rod in one hand. He clapped his other hand on Zarian’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you, brother. You look like you’ve grown up a little more.”

Zarian gawked up at the big, blue-eyed blond. “What?”

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“I don’t expect you to be perfect,” Gilbert said. “Frankly, I’m ready to meet my maker if things end tomorrow with a wave of darkness. But everyday I can still draw breath means we are still on course to follow our true purpose. And I can see you’re trying, which is all I can pray for. Keep on trying, Zarian. Keep on trying.”

“Uh, um, okay, sure,” Zarian said, flustered, dropping the Spanish.

Gilbert placed his rod on his shoulder and looked back, still speaking Spanish. “Can you do me a favor and take my plate out with you, Bianca? Much appreciated.”

“Go on and fish, Gilbert.” Bianca waved him off.

Gilbert sauntered out to the lake.

Zarian watched him go. He felt Naomi staring hard at him. He turned and met her eyes before realizing his mistake.

“Gilbert, come back! We didn’t even go over the new changes!” Zarian yelled.

Gilbert didn’t come back. He was zoned out to anything outside of fishing.

Zarian sighed, powered up the network link to Gilbert’s mind spider like he was putting him on ‘speaker call,’ and turned to the ladies. He, Para, and Naomi explained all the key points and events from the lair crawl yesterday, then they went over their growth.

They both had some incredible changes, but Naomi’s Thematic Concept/Even Further Beyond took the cake.

<Thematic Concept/Even Further Beyond (Divine): For a temporary time, your Willpower can grow vastly when you push far beyond your limits, even to the point of destroying yourself. This may affect your other favored stats to some extent. Beware of the severe debuffs that will follow, if you remain alive.>

Despite the debuff, Naomi sat straight with a smug look on her face. She sat straighter and looked even more smug as Zarian showered her with praise.

Hannah looked on with some thinly veiled but understandable envy. Bianca was all sunshine and rainbows, doling out some congrats where they were due.

Stolen novel; please report.

Gilbert mumbled some half-ass congrats as he looked out into the water and searched for the perfect spot. Slip the Sleipnir came trotting over to nip at Gilbert’s shoulder, and the man waved off the stellar eight-legged creature.

Zarian wondered when the inevitable one-on-one would happen between him and Naomi. As of now, Naomi was too severely debuffed to do much of anything, but knowing her, she was going to want to test herself. Hopefully, her debuff would end in the next day or two so Zarian could see how far she could push in a spar.

Wait, doesn’t that mean the other three would have to protect me and Naomi during our most vulnerable moments? Zarian thought. With great power comes great setbacks, I see. Well, if it’s Bianca, Hannah, and Gilbert, I think we will be okay.

“That’s not a spider,” Bianca said, handing Zarian a plate of fresh and delicious breakfast while looking past him.

“No, it’s not. It’s an entity that’s alive while also serving as a book of spells,” Hannah explained, looking in the same direction as Bianca.

Zarian glanced down at Morph. The grimoire shivered and made gurgling squeaks while scrambling around on the floor.

“He is a precious child and needs nurturing before I read his pages,” Para said. “I would appreciate it if you help me care for Morph.”

“D’aw! I love you, Morph!” Bianca squealed.

Morph shivered in fear of the tall and glamorous princess who oozed radiant light and free good +5.

“I’m not great with children, but I’ll help,” Hannah said. “Though it begs the question of how much is materialized with Morph. The other grimoires could avoid damage or any attempt at tampering most times, but this one seems more physical and present than the others.”

“Seems like a big weak link. I can toughen him up so he isn’t such a weenie,” Naomi grunted.

Para spent the next three minutes scolding Naomi. She did so in fluent Spanish, which made the scolding even worse.

By the time Para finished, Naomi was saying, “Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am,” like she was a Boot Marine again. That knocked her down from her Even Further Beyond high horse. Hannah pretended not to enjoy that.

Zarian tried not to laugh while eating his delicious breakfast. It wasn’t as good as Foodie’s, but Bianca had certainly put some measure of love into it.

He perked up further when Bianca swept around and gave him seconds, thirds, and plenty more plates. Para reached into the cabin-sized fridge around the corner and ate the carcasses that were there for her.

Zarian then turned his attention to some freshly squeezed magic juice and enjoyed its heightened sweet flavors as he thought about the rest of the day.

Turning Loner into an expert was on the list, which Zarian imagined was a sunset affair. Fishing with Gilbert wasn’t mandatory, but there was some heavy social pressure and expectations to go along with it for Gilbert’s sake, so Zarian couldn’t scurry away and study spells.

Zarian felt annoyed. He felt a little irrational. He felt a little mischievous. Something had ticked him off and made him slightly jaded suddenly.

And it was Gilbert’s fault.

Why?

There didn’t need to be a why.

He made sure the spider network shut out Gilbert for a little while. Then Zarian submerged into his free evil +4 and recalled a joke he workshopped months ago.

“Zarian, I can sense your sub alignment,” Bianca said cheerily.

“Let me be, Bianca,” Zarian said. “Gilbert’s been too uppity and holier-than-thou. It’s time to shake that up.”

“But he’s in a good mood!” Bianca said with even more squeaky cheer.

“It’s going to be funny,” Zarian said. “Trust me.”

“Do it,” Naomi hissed.

Bianca sighed dramatically.

Hannah jumped out of her chair and seized Zarian by the arm. She looked hard into his eyes with a fervent fire.

Zarian shivered.

He slowly peeled Hannah off, performed a backward-stepping dance that took him out the clear doors, and dropped all the legendary gear on the floor between him and Hannah, the spatial bags on top. With the Runic Engineer sufficiently distracted, Zarian turned with a mean smile on his face and scurried over to Gilbert.

Slip the Sleipnir kept nibbling at Gilbert’s hair for his attention. The eight-legged horse seemed annoyed. Then Slip turned to Zarian, saw the look on the Madness Wizard’s face, and decided to trot off to mess with the skeletons and spiders hanging out or patrolling all over the place.

Loner was the only one relaxing while in the branches of a tree tower. Facing the pristine lake, the longest surviving skeleton sat coolly with his bony arms crossed over his ribcage.

When Loner glanced over at Zarian, the skeleton saw the look on the Madness Wizard’s face and already started shaking his head in disappointment.

“I know what you’re here to do, Zarian,” Gilbert said calmly, his back still turned to the wizard. He practiced some motions for casting the enchanted hook and line. “But I know in my spirit there is nothing you can do to disturb me unless you plan to destroy the lake.”

“Why would I when this is a bounty for one of my flock?” Zarian asked smoothly.

Gilbert froze a little. He continued to face away. “Now, now, I’m your friend. And I call you a brother in the sense we are brothers of arms and magic out here on adventures. But I am not one of your flock. I am a helper sent by the Lord.”

“Indeed, you have been called here to serve as such. I know it’s hard to believe, for you have prayed and waited on me for so long without knowing the truth.” Zarian took a few steps closer. “But wait no longer, my child, for I am here. I have returned.”

Gilbert’s grip tensed around his enchanted rod. He jerked his arm up and down like he was about to throw it, but he stopped himself at the last second and took a deep breath. Finally, he turned to Zarian.

“Stop it,” Gilbert grunted. “You are a fallen angel in need of redemption. Don’t you dare try to play games that landed you in trouble in the first place!”

Zarian turned away from Gilbert and looked out to the lake. “It is Mid Spring, is it not?”

“Zarian, stop! I swear to God I will deck you with a mean one!”

“Oh, Gilbert, one can say that Mid Spring reflects a certain month back in the old world.”

Gilbert dropped the rod and squared up.

He sacrificed vitality to raise his hitting power. The process was interesting to observe because Zarian was mainly blind to vitality. He could only see it when there was a transference of one energy type to another that dealt with aura.

With Gilbert sacrificing his vitality for more hitting power, Zarian perceived the intricate nature of vital energy as it became fuel for Gilbert’s Sacrificial Blow +2. Then Gilbert powered up further with Adrenaline Jolt +2, making him look big and mean like a smaller version of the Red Hulk. But wait, there was more, such as Gilbert’s Unified Monk Force. The skill formed a shifting field of colors around his outline, boosting his physicality even further.

“Quit it!” Gilbert growled. “Not one more word! Let me just have this peace and joy!”

Zarian frowned and nodded his head. He looked away, as if he was going to leave. Then he turned fully to Gilbert.

“I have returned, my son. All will be well again,” Zarian said, his face splitting into the biggest of grins.

Gilbert decked him in the chest and sent him flying like a ball out of a cannon. Para secured Morph under layers of hard armor and soft cushions. She let Zarian earn himself some broken ribs and internal hemorrhaging.

The Madness Wizard smashed into a corner of the surrounding ring of castles and forts and plowed through a bunch of stone structures nonstop. Then he hit some decently hard supports and had a huge tower collapse on him.

Once everything quieted, Gilbert looked around at everyone else with a frenzied gaze.

“I had to do it! I had to! You all heard the nonsense he was saying! I can’t just let that stand!” Gilbert shouted like a crazy man. “I had to! I did it for the real J-man!”

Nobody else said a thing.

But there was a muffled voice they could all hear resounding around the lake. Rubble from the fallen towers, walls, and stone structures shifted out of the way as Zarian hovered upward.

He extended both arms to the sides, his legs pointed straight down together. Some might consider this a T-pose. Others might see it as a cross.

Both were correct as Zarian roared with bloody mad glee to the chagrin of Gilbert.

“REJOICE EVERYONE! ZOMBIE JESUS HAS RISEN ONCE AGAIN!”

“GOD DAMN YOU, ZARIAN DARKRUN! GOD DAMN YOU!”