The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

’I really am the perfect man!’

After giving himself a thorough once-over, Anser felt pretty satisfied.

Of course, he still had plenty of flaws—low Dexterity, poor Wisdom, weak skills, too few feats...

But all of those shortcomings were only temporary. As time passed and his level increased, they’d all be filled in sooner or later.

’In the future... my focus will definitely be spellcasting. But spells are merely tools, not the path to Legend itself.’

He sank into thought once more.

Sorcerer, Wizard, and Paladin were classes. Draconic Bloodline, time magic, the Oath of the Noble Genies, and similar subclasses were the actual paths.

To become a Legend, one probably had to comprehend the magical source at the end of one’s own path—to understand and ultimately master the underlying laws.

It was like hearing the ”strings” of the world’s laws... and learning how to pluck them.

It sounded mysterious, but the process itself was surprisingly grounded.

Take a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, for example. Wasn’t it simply a matter of using one’s faint draconic bloodline to breathe in and out dragon magic, gradually mastering primordial power?

True dragons had it even easier. As long as they lived long enough, they naturally matured into the Legendary stage. It was an evolution of their very life essence. Born with primordial power, they stood at the source of dragon magic itself.

A legendary dragon’s magical power projected a domain around it, deliberately altering the magical environment and even the physical laws surrounding its lair. That phenomenon was one of the hallmarks of becoming Legendary.

In theory, as long as Anser kept leveling up, he would never encounter a true bottleneck. The true dragon blood flowing through him was enough to carry him into the Legendary realm.

Wizards, on the other hand, undoubtedly had a much harder road ahead. They had to devote themselves to a specific branch within one of the eight schools of magic—space, necrotic magic, psychic magic, summoning, creation...

Perhaps gravity magic, time magic, and war magic had all been born that way.

Well... that was just Anser’s own speculation.

He wasn’t a Legend himself, so all he could do was make educated guesses based on scattered remarks from others.

He reopened his spell list and casually flipped through it. The 8th- and 9th-level spells were still grayed out and unavailable.

’I get to choose one Signature Spell at level 11 and another at level 13. That probably means one has to be 6th level or lower, and the other 7th level or lower.’

His main candidates came from 5th-, 6th-, and 7th-level spells. Generally speaking, the higher the spell level, the stronger the spell.

Although Signature Spells could evolve, raising one all the way from a cantrip to the level of a 9th-level spell definitely wouldn’t be easy.

’Do I really need to specialize? Sanctum paired with Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron alongside Heroes’ Feast, Disintegrate with Prismatic Spray... or perhaps time magic instead?’

If a Signature Spell could eventually break free of the limitations of its original spell model, then by the end of its development it should become the ultimate expression—the defining paradigm—of an entire field of magic.

Something beyond mere specialization.

After weighing his options, Anser concluded that evocation was still his greatest strength. After all, he possessed Elemental Affinity, true dragon bloodline, and Evocation specialization.

As for a second choice, it had to be time magic—rare, powerful, and with an exceptionally high ceiling.

Later on, he could always consider Wish, Invulnerability, and similar spells. Everything else could simply be cast through conventional means.

Those choices happened to cover the four schools he excelled at most: Evocation, Transmutation, Conjuration, and Abjuration.

’For Evocation... Prismatic Spray. For time... Temporal Shunt.’

He had a feeling Prismatic Spray possessed tremendous potential. It might even surprise him someday.

As for Temporal Shunt, it was one of the rarest forms of time magic, capable of banishing its target to another point along the flow of time. Its effects were anything but ordinary.

[Signature Spells: Temporal Shunt, Prismatic Spray. Confirm?]

”Confirm!”

Anser’s spirit jolted.

Everything before his eyes rapidly receded, becoming blurred and unreal, transforming into dazzling streams of shifting light. The air around him grew strangely thick and viscous.

Looking down, he found that he himself had become a brilliant rainbow beam, drifting through a boundless river of stars with no end in sight.

Unable to resist its current, he simply floated wherever it carried him, overwhelmed by an indescribable sense of insignificance... and awe.

Suddenly, the river of stars split into several branches. Swept up by a vortex, he was pulled into one of them.

A series of blurred, fragmented moments flooded his mind.

He saw the Rock of Bral.

It had become a sea of ruins, smoke billowing into the sky, corpses strewn everywhere.

’This...’

Just as he tried to get a better look, a powerful force yanked at him. His body suddenly felt heavy, his vision blurred, and a cluttered desk covered with scattered sheets of parchment filled his sight.

’I’m back?’

He raised his hand. The rainbow radiance sank beneath his skin, leaving behind a barely perceptible iridescent sheen on his soft scales.

Closing his eyes once more, Anser carefully experienced his two newly acquired Signature Spells. They felt similar to his spell-like ability, Gust of Wind, yet far deeper and more familiar—as though they had been engraved directly into his instincts.

He opened his Character Sheet.

The Signature Spells had their own separate category, highlighting just how unique they were.

...

Temporal Shunt: Transmutation

Casting Time: Reaction

Range: 1,080 feet (324 meters)

You forcibly interfere with a creature’s personal flow of time. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is banished to another point in the timestream, temporarily disappearing and causing the action it had just attempted to automatically fail.

A few seconds later, the creature is ejected back into the current timeline and reappears. However, it has no memory of you casting this spell and can scarcely perceive that it was ever affected by time magic.

Creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against this spell, and its spell save DC increases by 1.

Maximum Targets: 4

Current Level: 5

Uses: Once per day

Experience Required to Level Up: 0/8,500

...

’Aside from the Metamagic bonuses, it doesn’t seem all that different from the original version,’ Anser mused.

Whenever he cast Temporal Shunt, all ten of his Metamagic options automatically applied to it. As a result, its range, spell save DC, and maximum number of targets had all been enhanced.

That alone made it worthy of being a Signature Spell.

Not to mention that it could still be upgraded, whether through practice or by investing experience directly.

’Though 8,500 experience is pretty expensive... and only one free use per day.’

The once-per-day limit didn’t mean he could cast it only once. It meant his bloodline allowed him to cast it once each day without spending any Magic Power.

Any additional castings would consume Magic Power as normal, but it would still count as a Signature Spell and retain all of its Metamagic effects.

’It’s already incredibly powerful. I just wonder what it feels like to be banished from the current timestream.’

His thoughts drifted back to the scene he had ”seen” earlier.

Perhaps that had been another branch of the timestream.

The flow of time possessed a kind of ”elasticity,” and Temporal Shunt amounted to giving the target a brief but violent ”temporal slingshot.”

Because time naturally repaired damage and paradoxes within the timeline, smoothing out any disturbances, the target would soon be ”snapped” back into place, with almost no awareness that anything had happened.

Ordinary creatures existed in only a single timestream.

’This spell... looks like a lot of fun.’

Collecting his thoughts, Anser turned to his second Signature Spell—Prismatic Spray.

It remained a 7th-level spell, matching its original spell level. Like Temporal Shunt, it could be cast once per day for free, but upgrading it required 12,000 experience, making it significantly more demanding.

Compared to Temporal Shunt, however, its enhancements were obvious.

The base damage of five of its offensive rays had been slightly increased to 13d6 (78), and every hit automatically dealt maximum damage.

The indigo petrification ray and the violet banishment ray now had higher saving throw DCs as well.

It still fired eight prismatic rays, but even without the Arcanefire Longbow, its range had reached 108 meters.

At first glance, having only eight rays spread across such a wide cone seemed rather sparse, but there was no need to worry about missing.

He could make slight adjustments to each ray’s direction, and the rays would automatically seek targets, repeatedly changing course to pursue the nearest enemies.

Even if some rays couldn’t reach distant targets because of their initial angles, concentrated fire was almost guaranteed.

Some particularly unlucky victims might end up taking multiple rays at once.

Better yet, he could alter the composition of the rays. For example, against a creature immune to fire, he could replace the fire ray with a Ray of Frost instead.

’Now this is what a Signature Spell should look like.’

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