IT LIVES!
Sorry for the time off, but I've been at Kumoricon for about 75% of the last three days, running on little sleep and lots of excitement. No writing was accomplished during that time.
Rob: I am tempted, oh so very tempted, to make that canon...
CD: I will only say that there is a difference between an affinity and an Affinity, and Affinity is a Thing in the 'verse. Unfortunately, my letter 'a' is too small.
**********
Entry 23 (Day 93)
Five days. It's taken five whole days, three Storage Devices, and a sizable amount of testing equipment, but I FINALLY managed to get through the entire Standard Magical Capability Test!
Well, most of it. The parts I'm capable of, anyway. Irony, thy name is Magic.
My memory's gotten a lot better since my rebirth, so I don't technically have to write this stuff down any longer. If I want to remember it, I do. Perfectly. There are limitations, of course, but that's a story for another time. Suffice it to say that I currently remember every word of Scaglietti's lecture on linker core theory as it pertains to my own situation, but I find writing down the situation as I understand it helps me comprehend more of it.
The long and short of it is that one's ability to perform magic can't be boiled down to a single statistic or ranking. There are a good half-dozen factors that contribute to 'power level' alone, and how well they balance with each other determines what a mage can do.
First step is the ability to generate mana, which determines how quickly a mage recovers from casting. Then comes maximum mana capacity- the size of your MP pool.
The third important attribute is the performance of one's, for lack of a better word, links- the metaphysical connections between the linker core and one's mana supply. If they're too small, you might have S-rank mana stores, but be limited to D-rank spells because you just can't tap that fast enough.
Fourth is linker core size, which is the other potential limiting factor on a mage's max thoroughput. To switch metaphors, the mana system is like a city, and the people inside it are power. Say you had a business (that's your spell), and were trying to get people in to visit it. The road leading to your business is the mana/core link. The business is the spell, and its parking lot would be the linker core.
Next comes linker core strength, which is a blanket term for a collection of measurements, two of which have an impact on 'power level'. Core durability influences magical endurance- how well one can take the damage extended high-power casting and spell backlashes cause. Core plasticity measures how far one's core can expand, which dictates how effectively one can force themselves past their normal limits. The best Belkan knights all have high plasticity... or burn themselves out eventually.
The term 'power level' is apparently a useful abstraction because, for most mages, most or all of these values scale up in proportion to each other. Variations exist, and aren't actually all that uncommon, but they're usually no more than 2/3 of a rank. Somebody like my first example- an S-rank mana capacity with D-rank mana/core links- would be an extreme oddity, to the point of having medical studies done on them to determine why.
The problem I had with the test is that I'm one of those 'extreme oddities'. Three of them, actually- my mana system, linker core, and the links between them are, all of them, strange.
To start, I have the linker core of an S-rank mage right now. Keeping my current age in mind, I should be able to get it up to SS-rank with enough training. Apparently, the doctor did something to it as it was developing, because my core is almost the toughest he's ever seen. I don't have to worry about hurting myself with magic, basically, even if I push myself. The tradeoff is that my core has virtually no plasticity to it, so I can't boost my output at all. No Blaster System, no cartridges- none of that.
My current body's mana system was designed with both capacity and endurance in mind. I've at least S+ capacity, and a similar rank in mana generation. On top of that, the doctor did some tinkering on my metabolism... but I'll get into that when I need it.
So far, so good, right? Here's the problem. The connection between my core and my mana system is... quirky. It works... as long as I'm trying to link enough mana to power an A-rank spell or higher. Anything lower, and nothing happens.
The problem is that linker cores work on a per-spell basis. If I cast a spell, it gets no less than A-rank power channeled into it, and lower-order magic isn't built to handle that much power.
Simple spells break when I cast them- almost always in indiscriminately explosive ways.
The doctor kept his word. Unfortunately, he managed to keep it to the letter.
I have to wonder if it was intentional.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Sorry for the time off, but I've been at Kumoricon for about 75% of the last three days, running on little sleep and lots of excitement. No writing was accomplished during that time.
Rob: I am tempted, oh so very tempted, to make that canon...
CD: I will only say that there is a difference between an affinity and an Affinity, and Affinity is a Thing in the 'verse. Unfortunately, my letter 'a' is too small.
**********
Entry 23 (Day 93)
Five days. It's taken five whole days, three Storage Devices, and a sizable amount of testing equipment, but I FINALLY managed to get through the entire Standard Magical Capability Test!
Well, most of it. The parts I'm capable of, anyway. Irony, thy name is Magic.
My memory's gotten a lot better since my rebirth, so I don't technically have to write this stuff down any longer. If I want to remember it, I do. Perfectly. There are limitations, of course, but that's a story for another time. Suffice it to say that I currently remember every word of Scaglietti's lecture on linker core theory as it pertains to my own situation, but I find writing down the situation as I understand it helps me comprehend more of it.
The long and short of it is that one's ability to perform magic can't be boiled down to a single statistic or ranking. There are a good half-dozen factors that contribute to 'power level' alone, and how well they balance with each other determines what a mage can do.
First step is the ability to generate mana, which determines how quickly a mage recovers from casting. Then comes maximum mana capacity- the size of your MP pool.
The third important attribute is the performance of one's, for lack of a better word, links- the metaphysical connections between the linker core and one's mana supply. If they're too small, you might have S-rank mana stores, but be limited to D-rank spells because you just can't tap that fast enough.
Fourth is linker core size, which is the other potential limiting factor on a mage's max thoroughput. To switch metaphors, the mana system is like a city, and the people inside it are power. Say you had a business (that's your spell), and were trying to get people in to visit it. The road leading to your business is the mana/core link. The business is the spell, and its parking lot would be the linker core.
Next comes linker core strength, which is a blanket term for a collection of measurements, two of which have an impact on 'power level'. Core durability influences magical endurance- how well one can take the damage extended high-power casting and spell backlashes cause. Core plasticity measures how far one's core can expand, which dictates how effectively one can force themselves past their normal limits. The best Belkan knights all have high plasticity... or burn themselves out eventually.
The term 'power level' is apparently a useful abstraction because, for most mages, most or all of these values scale up in proportion to each other. Variations exist, and aren't actually all that uncommon, but they're usually no more than 2/3 of a rank. Somebody like my first example- an S-rank mana capacity with D-rank mana/core links- would be an extreme oddity, to the point of having medical studies done on them to determine why.
The problem I had with the test is that I'm one of those 'extreme oddities'. Three of them, actually- my mana system, linker core, and the links between them are, all of them, strange.
To start, I have the linker core of an S-rank mage right now. Keeping my current age in mind, I should be able to get it up to SS-rank with enough training. Apparently, the doctor did something to it as it was developing, because my core is almost the toughest he's ever seen. I don't have to worry about hurting myself with magic, basically, even if I push myself. The tradeoff is that my core has virtually no plasticity to it, so I can't boost my output at all. No Blaster System, no cartridges- none of that.
My current body's mana system was designed with both capacity and endurance in mind. I've at least S+ capacity, and a similar rank in mana generation. On top of that, the doctor did some tinkering on my metabolism... but I'll get into that when I need it.
So far, so good, right? Here's the problem. The connection between my core and my mana system is... quirky. It works... as long as I'm trying to link enough mana to power an A-rank spell or higher. Anything lower, and nothing happens.
The problem is that linker cores work on a per-spell basis. If I cast a spell, it gets no less than A-rank power channeled into it, and lower-order magic isn't built to handle that much power.
Simple spells break when I cast them- almost always in indiscriminately explosive ways.
The doctor kept his word. Unfortunately, he managed to keep it to the letter.
I have to wonder if it was intentional.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.