Antimage: An Isekai LitRPG Adventure (Ends of Magic Book 1), page 1
Antimage
Ends of Magic
Book One
Alexander D. Olson
First published by Timeless Wind Publishing LLC 2023
Copyright © 2023 by Alexander D. Olson.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Alexander D. Olson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First edition
Editing by Silas Sontag and Lorne Ryburn.
Cover art by Miblart.
For my mom, who read me Sherlock Holmes as a bedtime story.
Contents
Map
1. A Long Trip
2. New Systems
3. The First Discussion
4. Putting the Pieces Together
5. The Second Discussion
6. Escape?
7. The Giantraiders
8. A Time to Rest
9. A Time to Fight
10. Davrar Revealed
11. Adventurers and Adventurers
12. System Questions
13. A Grave Threat
14. Paragons of Adventure
15. Gemore at Last
16. Adventurer Administration
17. On the Town
18. Introductions to Last
19. Training Magic
20. Bumps and Bruises
21. Dodging Disadvantage
22. Backgrounds and Warnings
23. Basic Education
24. Finally, a Time Skip
25. A Mage’s Mansion
26. A Mage’s Insight
27. A Mage’s Feast
28. Preparations for a Patrol
29. A Blooding Patrol
30. Discoveries
31. Repercussions
32. Money Where Your Mouth Is
33. The Payoff of Risk
34. Return to Safety
35. A Violent Debrief
36. Private Conversations
37. Back to Normalcy
38. Connections of Crafting
39. Explanations of Explosive
40. A Spot of Mechanics
41. Can You Teach a Mage Multivariable Calculus?
42. Skill Combinations
43. Meditation on the Move
44. Introspection on Knowledge
45. Reminiscing and Socializing
46. Correspondence from Afar
47. Consequences for Treason
48. A Long-awaited Letter
49. Introduction to Witchcraft
50. Divine Upbringing
51. Clandestine Operations
52. An Unexpected Exercise
53. A Light Touch of Undeath
54. A Somewhat Heavier Touch of Undeath
55. Just Some Really Heavy Undead
56. Building a Church to Yourself
57. Random Road Encounters
58. A Crisis of Faith
59. Fruits are Borne
60. A Solid Phase
61. Flux Across a Surface
62. A Growing Spark
63. Weaponry in Motion
64. Guns and Blades
65. A Frustrating Field
66. Very Very Frightening
67. The Building Charge
68. The Tales of Endings
69. An Aurora Duel
Afterword
Full Status
About the Author
About Timeless Wind Publishing
Groups
Groups (cont.)
Map
Davrar
Chapter 1
A Long Trip
Nathan twisted the key to his apartment and felt the heavy bolt clunk back. He took three steps into the darkened single-room studio, swinging the door closed and shucking his backpack into the center of the bright carpet that took up most of the open floor space. Then, he flopped into the overstuffed armchair that was the largest piece of furniture in the place, aside from the bed.
It had been a nightmare getting the chair up the stairs and into the apartment, but Nathan’s friends had earned their pizza for helping him move out of the graduate student dorms a few years ago. Besides, he’d found the comfortable chair marked “up for grabs” on the street. On a graduate student’s stipend it was hard to turn down comfortable furniture for the low price of free.
Sighing, Nathan twisted in the chair to fish his phone from underneath his wallet and keys, pulling up the meditation app. He’d started doing mindfulness meditation almost a year ago to help deal with the anxiety of graduate school. To his surprise, it had helped.
I’m definitely better about not just sitting in this chair and feeling bad about everything I should be doing. Instead, I can meditate and feel productive about not doing anything!
Nathan started the session, listening to the soothing voice through his earbuds as he relaxed deeper into the cushions. He let his mind go still, silencing his inner voice and focusing on the sensations of breathing, of gravity pulling his body into the chair.
Time passed, and Nathan didn’t focus on anything. He didn’t make plans, and he especially didn’t worry about the fellowship application due soon. Or tomorrow’s experiment that would cap off the last two months of work. If that experiment worked, it would be a big step forward towards his doctorate. If it didn’t… well. It depended on how it didn’t work. Nathan realized he was spiraling, and with a moment of attention, the worries dissipated like smoke.
Some more time passed, and another thought intruded on Nathan’s mind.
[A kinnar avi, nukol ad kayikxrokko, dlan avail-xalark da dhak!]
He was confused.
The words had emerged clearly in his consciousness in a deep, booming voice, but he didn’t understand where they’d come from or the language itself. They hadn’t come from the earbuds – the words had seemed to inject themselves directly into his brain.
He was about to stop meditating early and start making dinner when it happened again, the words more forceful this time. They pressed against the inside of his head, grinding and overwhelming.
[A KINNAR AVI. DANO DA NO JAILROAV UDLAKK DHO XAAK. A KINNAR AVI]
Nathan’s eyes snapped open and he tore off his earbuds, exhaling with frustration.
I don’t need this now! Can’t it wait until after the cytometry experiment? Just gimme a 24-hour rain check.
He started to stand, but the voice crashed into his skull for a third time. It wiped out all thought.
[DANO DA NO]
Nathan didn’t feel the chair under him anymore, or the clothes on his skin. His eyes were open and saw nothing but black. Air tore itself from his open mouth, and his ears spiked in pain.
This must be what being in vacuum feels like. Why aren’t there any stars?
Nathan flailed, accomplishing nothing but feeling the vacuum pulling on his lungs and eyes and the spit in his mouth boiling away. He tumbled in absolute darkness, with no reference point and no sense of anything other than himself.
After what must have been mere seconds but felt much longer, he tumbled into brightness, landing on his butt on smooth stone. With vision tunneling, he heaved deep breaths, paying attention to nothing but pumping air in and out of his abused lungs. After a minute of slowing breaths, he looked around the room.
Why am I naked?
He was sitting in a shallow bowl of cold stone in the center of a large room. The entire place was made of the same smooth, pale stone that was under his butt, all lit evenly by a grid of bright lights in the ceiling. It looked like a cleanroom done in tan marble.
The bowl was only a foot deep and several feet wide, so he could see out easily. The room around him was decorated with several pedestals capped with orbs shining in muted purples, yellows and blues. They were linked together by a complex grid of glowing metal that looked like multiple overlapping circuit boards. The metal dimmed in color before his eyes, losing some of its blinding radiance.
The formation wasn’t centered on Nathan, but rather right behind him. He scooted around, sitting on his hands to protect his butt from the cold stone. There was a metal filigree arch supporting a horizontal disk of exquisitely carved stone eight feet across. Multicolored lights emanated from a series of enormous gemstones inlaid into the arch and the stone. Over the disc hovered a horizontal portal into darkness. The portal rapidly shrank until it vanished with a tiny pop.
Nathan stared blankly at the disk, losing himself in the fractal-like carvings for a moment.
Whatever that is, it’s beautiful. It’s like an arcane language or art, all carved with mathematical precision. Magic?
Nathan’s attention was drawn by something moving beyond the arch. There was a man on a low dais at the edge of the room, and it looked like he was concluding a victory dance. The man pumped his fists and bounced on his feet like somebody who had just won the lottery, his orange robe flapping. Just behind him were a pair of humanoid statues with eerie
The orange-robed man saw Nathan looking at him, and held out his palm, the semi-universal gesture for “stop” as he mouthed a word that didn’t look like “stop” at all. He busied himself at a wide control panel, complete with flashing lights. The grid of equipment surrounding Nathan dimmed even faster, quickly turning into a mix of shiny metal in steel, copper and gold tones. The shining orbs lost their glow, many of them cracking apart with a faint tinkling sound that sounded expensive.
The man hopped down from the dais, nearly skipping over to Nathan’s bowl. He kept his attention fixed on Nathan, not sparing a second glance at the complicated apparatus that he threaded his bulk through with a deftness bourne of familiarity.
Nathan found the man’s single-minded focus unnerving and looked around for anything to cover himself with. He settled for simply putting a hand in front of his genitals before looking up to observe the man who was approaching Nathan’s bowl.
He looked to be a man of average height in late-middle age, fairly pudgy, with a full head of black hair and a wide, stubbly face. His eyes glowed orange (what?), and his face was full of excitement as he stopped in front of Nathan. He clapped his hands together and spoke in a low, fast voice. “Dhak ak ka odadark!”
It sounded like the same deep voice Nathan had heard in his head earlier, and Nathan looked up at him dumbly and spoke with a raw throat. “Excuse me, sorry, but what?” The man slapped one hand across each eye in a gesture of self-admonishment, before stepping forward and laying a hand on Nathan’s forehead.
[Ankiko Rurkiuko]
Orange light emitted from the man’s mouth with the words – and from the hand on Nathan’s forehead. Nathan's head spiked in pain, a pressure and tightness squeezing down behind both temples like a concussion combined with the worst migraine Nathan had ever had. His eyes slammed shut and Nathan collapsed sideways. Both hands flew to his head, modesty forgotten.
After a brief moment, he heard the man’s voice again, and Nathan felt the language was more familiar than before. Cold and unyielding hands slid underneath him, lifting Nathan gently off the floor as he tried to curl into a ball around the pain in his head.
Whatever held him felt more like a statue than a person. Nathan felt its steps carry him across the room, down a staircase and through a hallway. The pain in his head receded rapidly, and he blinked teary eyes open. He was being carried by a humanoid statue made of the same sand-colored marble as the walls. A multicolored opalescence shone from its eyes. Then, a blue box flashed in Nathan’s vision, front and center.
Welcome to Davrar
Davrar will help you survive
Adapting you to the local biosystem
Davrar is calibrating to your understanding and determining your capabilities
Please, be patient, this will not take long
What.
Nathan desperately wanted to figure out what any of that meant, but the box vanished as soon as he parsed what it said. The man in orange hovered next to him and when he saw Nathan open his eyes, he heaved a relieved sigh and started to talk quickly. “Hail the Giant, you must be so confused. Be patient for just a moment and all will be explained.” Each word caused another pulse of pain, but they were just faint wisps compared to the earlier migraine.
Hang on, that wasn’t English or Spanish. And neither was the text in the box. How did I understand that? Was that magic? I’m being carried by a statue?
The man had distinctly spoken in the same language as before, but this time Nathan understood all the words and the grammar. His head was sore, his breathing uncertain, and too many questions and observations swirled in his mind, so he let the statue carry him down another flight of stairs and to a metal door.
Beyond the door was a small stone room in the same seamless pale marble, complete with a bed, table and two chairs in light wood. In one corner of the room, a trough of water smoothly ran underneath a hollowed-out seat. The statue (or golem? Animated object?) gently set Nathan down in one of the chairs on one side of the table. The orange-robed man smoothly slid into the seat across the table, and his orange eyes focused on Nathan’s face like two searchlights. Given that they were faintly glowing, it wasn’t too bad of a comparison.
“I will explain. I am Grand Dimension Archmage Taeol dho Droxol, seventh finger and third researcher of the Ascendant Academy of Giantsrest. I have summoned you here in a grand quest for Insights and power. I scried across dimensions to find…”
He was interrupted by Nathan loudly coughing into his elbow, his lungs scraped raw. Taeol’s eyes widened briefly, and he took in Nathan’s teary eyes and naked body. “Oh, a gauntlet of apologies. You have had a long journey.” His lips curved into a self-satisfied smile. “A very long journey”.
Taeol sized up Nathan, then gestured to the golem. “Fetch an extra-large apprentice robe, a bowl of porridge and one spoon”. The mobile statue immediately turned and left the room, closing the door gently behind it. Taeol leaned across the table, catching Nathan’s left hand in his right, even as Nathan flinched away. He spoke again in that resonant voice that Nathan had heard before Taeol had taught him a language with a touch.
[Moderate Curing]
Nathan’s residual headache lessened dramatically, his breathing evened out and the ringing in his ears reduced to background noise. He shook his head out, amazed at how good he felt all of a sudden. As if by magic.
Actually by magic. He used magic on me! And called himself an archmage! There’s magic here and I can probably learn it!
Excitement quickly replaced the pain. Nathan knew he should probably be scared, he should probably ask what the hell had just happened to bring him here. But instead, his mouth spoke the words at the forefront of his mind. “Can I learn magic?”
Taeol smiled again, teeth white and eyes glittering. “Yes, my boy. You will give me the secrets of your world, and I will teach you magic. Together, we will grasp Davrar and bring it to our breast!”
Chapter 2
New Systems
Nathan shared a grin with Taeol, excitement flooding through him. He’d wanted to do magic ever since he was little, when his parents had read fantasy stories to him in bed. The wish had only grown stronger as he grew older and started reading on his own. Every birthday when he blew out the candles, his wish had been the same.
I wish I could do magic.
Then – nothing fantastic had ever happened to him. No magic had appeared. So Nathan had turned to the closest thing available – Science. If you couldn’t discover arcane secrets and bend reality around you with magic spells, then at least you could discover secrets of the natural world and bend reality with normal tools.
That motivation had gotten harder to rely on over the years. It could be hard to convince yourself that understanding the signaling pathways of stem cell differentiation was plumbing the deep secrets of reality. Especially if your last few experiments failed to even let you know if you were on the right track.
