Name: Margaret Odius
Title:
Race: Human
Profession: Mage
Affiliation: Hart Familia
Level: Lv.1
Floor Reached: Floor 1
Basic Abilities:
Strength: I0 Endurance: I0 Dexterity: I0 Agility: I0 Magic: I0
Development Abilities:
Magic:
Karmic Flame Calamity
Freely control the form of flame (mastery increases with level and control).
Fire magic.
Quick-cast magic.
Karmic Flame Calamity: All-Slaying Heavenly Maiden
Summon flame maidens to fight alongside you.
Fire magic.
Summoning magic.
Chant: Burn all, destroy all, devour all!
Karmic Flame Calamity: Inferno Paradise
Ignite the heaven-falling fire, dealing a devastating strike over an ultra-wide area.
Fire magic.
Wide-area annihilation magic.
Chant:
Crimson lotus blooms over scorched earth, the red serpent coils about the moon's ring; parched souls intone their dirge among the ashes, burning mercy into the lamp-dust of departure. We take sin as our kindling, desire as our wind... let the karmic flame deck the garden the gods forsook, let glorious folly tumble between tongues of fire!
Skills:
Beloved's Crest
Hinders detection; an ordinary disguise that deceives the gods, blocking the gods' lie-detection and scrying.
Raises potential, accelerates growth at superspeed; increases potential and vessel capacity, and grows at an ultra-fast rate.
Karmic Flame Scorching
Magic inflicts a karmic flame effect, which lowers the target's magic resistance and spreads to nearby targets, while continuously burning for damage.
Improves magic-related abilities.
Flame Phantom, Flame Shaping
Allows fire magic to be chant-shaped.
Magic range expands, magic reach increases, magic speed improves.
Flame Disaster, Flame Calamity
Amplifies magic effects.
Doubles fire magic effects.
Permanently restores mental energy and improves mental energy efficiency.
Karmic Flame Three Calamities
Massively boosts all abilities.
When fighting with fire magic, magic effects gain a bonus that scales with mental energy consumed.
...
...
Take a good look. This fire Mage's name is Margaret Odius. Today is the day she holds her Falna ceremony.
This little familia centered on Leon had a small tradition: after the ceremony ended, the newcomer who received their Falna would, by unspoken agreement, share their Falna information with everyone.
Voluntarily, of course.
And once everyone had seen the magic and skills Margaret had gained, every single one of them fell silent, Leon and Aura, that pure and orthodox rearguard Mage, included.
On this day, the familia welcomed its first pure destruction Mage.
Yes, pure.
Among the several Mages in the familia, there was first the captain, Leon.
He needed no introduction. Leon clearly walked the path of a hexagonal jack-of-all-trades caster. With the miraculous Drop Treasure Chest skill and his pay-to-win cheat, as time accumulated, his future self would have a hand in everything: attack, defense, control, scouting, support, healing, and even on the side-profession front he had a passing grasp of tailoring and pharmacy.
Though his accumulation was still shallow and hadn't had time to mature, in actual combat a development path like Leon's clearly wouldn't have any obvious weak point. His basic abilities, skills, and magic loadout were exceptionally balanced, and once fully grown he'd become a flawless "all-rounder caster."
Compared to an irregular existence like that cheater, Aura clearly walked the path of a rearguard Mage.
Her two spells covered all four areas of damage, control, amplification, and sustain. Under the universal rule that "each person can learn at most three spells," that alone was enough to make her stand out. Add to that the immense mental energy and outstanding magic talent an elf is born with, and even looking across the whole world, Aura was without question one of the truly excellent ones.
So if Aura was this excellent in the rearguard position, what was the price?
Close-quarters combat, obviously.
Compared to Laurier, the wind-attribute magic swordsman known for her agility, dexterity, and speed, a rearguard Mage was undeniably far weaker in this regard.
The "Baptism" a while back had proven that point beyond doubt.
...
Unlike an all-rounder cheater like Leon, and unlike the rearguard-focused Aura, Margaret, as a Mage, had taken a far purer route.
The magic and skills she'd awakened all pointed in the same direction: destruction.
Destruction, destruction, destruction... nothing but destruction.
Three spells, quick-cast, summoning, and wide-area annihilation, meant she didn't have to hold the rearguard the way Aura did.
With the Flame Maidens, a summoned unit similar to a Patronus or a familiar spirit, she had no need to waste her teammates' energy on protecting her. So, with her own safety secured, she could easily fill the role of "midfield core."
In tactical terms, up front she could serve as a magic turret, helping the vanguard sweep the line; in the middle she could deal with enemies that slipped past the flanks or couldn't be cleared in time; and at the same time she could act as a second line of defense, providing cover and protection for the rearguard and the Supporter.
From this it was clear that once Margaret joined the team, her powerful firepower would effectively patch the team's current fragile links and push their overall combat strength up a whole new tier.
Add in the support and security provided by Iri, that reliable healer, and the team's growth potential had truly stepped into a brand-new level.
...
"G-good heavens! Margaret, this... this, this, this..."
Laurier pinched the sheet of parchment with trembling hands, her eyes darting back and forth between the information on the page and the woman beside her, the whole of her stunned speechless by this pure system construction, her scalp prickling.
She wasn't the only one. Even the usually cool-faced Aura, after catching a glimpse of the contents, had a rare trace of shock cross her eyes.
"So strong. Given time, once Miss Margaret has grown, in the single field of destruction magic alone... even Lady Riveria might struggle to match you."
Riveria?
Hearing an unfamiliar name, Margaret, who'd been in this world for less than a day, showed a touch of curiosity on her lovely face.
"Lady Riveria? From the way you say it... she must be a very powerful senior Mage?"
Iri, who'd arrived a little over a month before Margaret, immediately hugged her arm and explained eagerly.
"I know, I know! The Nine Hell, Riveria Ljos Alf. Born of elven royalty, an elf Mage belonging to Loki Familia, and one of the familia's Big Three."
"And she's recognized by everyone in Orario, from the gods on high down to the adventurers, as the city's current strongest Mage!"
The city's strongest Mage?
Leon repeated it under his breath, the figure of a certain witch he'd once encountered in the Dungeon flashing through his mind. He lowered his head slightly, a faint, almost imperceptible smile rising at the corner of his mouth.
In front of that woman, the Riveria of today probably wouldn't even come close.