So basically at this point I needed to scare up about 150k EXP. I am still waiting on my 15th level for the Guild of Mages so no quests there. I hit up the Guild of Adventurers next. Some of the usual lame monsters quests so I pick up 20 or so of those. Not enough to make 150k but close to 80k or so. I take my awesome new CHA stat and hit up the main quest desk. They say they have a Special Request for a forest drake to be killed but I'm only one guy and not a Warrior type. I insist I'm good and yank the quest. I'm sure a measly drake is no biggy after killing the Master of the Vampires. Of course I had a lot of help on that quest.

I head out into the woods to do my quests, almost enough to get my next level. Maybe if I clear enough trash on the way I'll reach my goal. I brush through all the minor quests in the most efficient way before I land on a quest for a Wood Wurm. Worms come in 3 levels in this tier of area. Worm, Wurm, and Wyrm. A Wyrm would be a real issue. A Worm would be barely worth killing. A Wurm on the other hand? A nice casual fight probably unless something happened but not easy peasy.

I focus on Perception as I get near the area and I see the Wurm devouring some Dire Wolves. Yikes.

Greater Wood Wurm LV 24 20000 EXP

Hp 4000 STR 250 DEX 50 CON 400 MOV 40/s

Skills: Tail Slam: 150 damage | Bite: 250 damage | Draconic: -50% disable duration

Narrator: Level: 14 Health 445[Rec 1.25/s] Mana 995[Rec 22.5/s]

This was going to be rough. I was basically 2 or 3 hits away from dying and it had a ton of health. That disable debuff? Ouch. Nice EXP though. Just what I needed.

I spell chainedup to Quicken. This thing had 20 Arcane Missiles of HP at a cost of 81 mana a pop. 1620 mana use total plus the mana for Endownment and disables. 20 seconds was only 450 mana. I had to find a more mana efficient strategy. Time to test out my new Miasma powers in a 1v1 fight.

Envenom was 120 base damage +20% from Longevity. Another 30% could be scored from Stigmata and Effluvium if it was Afflicted and Bleeding. Another 37.5% and 20% from Vigor and Extend. 249 damage total. Roughly the same damage per mana as Arcane Missile actually. Plague would add some damage from the -MIT debuff. Still not amazing. A major issue was Miasma was most effective on 3 targets and Haemomancy on 2. More efficient if I dropped Extend since that was currently mostly a Cast time buff. Yup, with just a little stalling and efficient spell order I was able to take down the giant snake. 24-14=10/10=1 1+1=2*20000=40000. So right there was 40000 EXP.

Clearly I was able to handle much tougher monsters now. A non "Greater" Forest Worm around level 20 would be worth 1.6*16000=25600 EXP but it would have something like 2500 Health. Far less risky at my current mana pool size. I dug around in the woods a bit more and finished up my quests. I did find another decent fight, though not nearly as intense as the Greater Forest Wurm. Bears! 3 Bears.

Greater Dire Cave Bear LV 14 4000 EXP

Hp 2000 STR 250 DEX 50 CON 400 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 70 damage | Bite: 100 damage | Armored: 20% PHY DMG MIT | Bear:-20% disable duration

Narrator: Level: 14 Health 445[Rec 1.25/s] Mana 995[Rec 22.5/s]

Now ostensibly this was a tougher fight with 6000 vs 4000 HP. But my Miasma spells were almost 3x as useful and 2x for Haemomancy. Plus really Proliferate could spread any single or double target spells around. Actually Proliferate became especially useful with some of my later talents where they were focused on strong single target debuffs. However, anything with a DoT was spread so some of those spells were extra useful. Miasma was Tier 1 for a reason.

I spent a lot of time optimizing my spell chain. Extend, Arcane Vigor, Quicken, Lockdown, Envenom. Extend, Arcane Vigor. Then Haemophile, Taint, Infect, Blight, Plague, Fester, etc. I had to keep Lockdown, Extend, Arcane Vigor, and Haemophile to maximize duration on my DoTs from Stigmata. Effluvium sort of took care of itself. I focused Extend primarily on Quicken and Lockdown. It was still too mana inefficient for damage spells. It cost 50% more for only 37.5% duration boost. Arcane Vigor meanwhile impacted 3 spells for only 40 mana, roughly 13/14 extra mana but a 20% duration boost. For spells that cost 70 mana or more or that I used rarely like buffs that was worth it. With 250+25 damage over 20 seconds from each Blighted Envenom which Plague would spread across all 3 enemies, and the damage from Blight, Plague, and Haemophilia as well as Contaminate I ended the fight after about 4 spell cycles damage wise.

I was the same level as the bears so I only got 12000 EXP. Honestly feel like the game gives too much of an EXP bonus to fighting single high level monsters. Could just be because I am solo and the math is different for parties.

I wend my way back to the Guild of Adventure turning in my bounties and finally my Special Request. Boom. 4 more Selection points plus I hit level 15.

+160200exp (269200/259200) (10000/388800) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 15!!!!

You have gained 25HP, 50MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point(bonus) + 1 ability point + 1 ability point(bonus)!

470 Health | 1045 Mana

2 more stats into MEM. Learned the Historian and Geographer abilities. Up to 15 skill points and 13 selection points. At this point it is time to level Chronomancy. First we look at the Phase 1 spells getting boosted:

Chronomancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Timestop: Stasis 6s | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 1s | 60 mana

Stagnation: Slow 8s | single target | ranged 40ft |Cast 2s | 60 mana

Quicken: Haste 10.5s | self | Cast 1s | 60 mana

Accelerate: Haste 8s | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s |60 mana

This is a pretty nice improvement. I only took Stagnation and Quicken, I actually don't plan on taking the other two for a while because I don't have allies to buff and Timestop is kinda mediocre in some ways. It doesn't count as a Disable but it also means you can't attack the target. I might have to put some skill points into stagnation or even Quicken. I've got 15 only though so only enough to boost Quicken and Stagnation to max, which means none for my other spells. Also haven't used any on Miasma. Typical builds, at least for a while, only get 1 SelP per 2SkiP per level, plus I got some bonus SelP. So even my multiple 5 SkiP bonuses don't offset the extra 15 SelP I got from Enigmatic. Kinda wish I had a similar buff for SP honestly.

Chronomancy Phase 2 Spell List:

Advance: Age 5s - Apply all effects as if time had passed | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 3s | 100 mana

Prolong: Refresh 5s - Recharge duration of friendly spells | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 3s | 100 mana

Wane: Dissipate 8s - Shorten duration of hostile spells | single target | Cast 2s | 70 mana

Mass Stagnation: Slow 8s | sphere 16ft | ranged 40ft | Cast 4s |150 mana

3 of the 4 spells here are not spells with duration, so sadly the boosts I had do not apply. They are still pretty powerful, though. Mass Stagnation is strong for obvious reasons, although in my cases I would prefer Lockdown. Maybe if I was fighting casters or ranged units I'd use Stagnation. I do infact use selection points on all of these spells.

Wane is a single target spell applying an effect unique to time magic, Dissipate. This applies to all hostile spells on you or an ally. Because it is not a counter-spell or cleanse it is very cheap even though it impacts every spell on the target. Also it is a Phase 2 Tier 1 spell. So it is inherently unusually powerful.

Prolong is an amazing spell. It can't add time to a duration it can only refresh it and it is not affected by duration boosts, as neither Wane nor Advance are. Refresh means it can add duration but only to the maximum of the spell when it was cast. So you'd have to wait 8 seconds before you cast Prolong if you wanted the full impact.

There is a spell in Metamagic that boosts a spell effect instead of duration or damage, found in Phase 2 however that does work on these spells. It similarly impacts Arcane Endowment and Arcane Proficiency. Having so many high magic Talents in one build, especially early, is amazing.

Finally Advance is an incredible spell. Perhaps the best spell here. Age treats a creature as having gone through the indicated time without being able to act. Essentially the opposite of Stasis. The downside is the duration of debuffs will be expended but the upside is it will turn DoTs into almost burst damage. Prolong and Advance are an obvious combo of spells. However they have high mana costs and long casting times. So you need to refresh the actual spells sometimes. You can't just permacycle them. Well unless you have an obscene amount of high magic powers anyways.

All of these spells can impact self/ally/enemy equally well. So you can shorten debuffs or DoTs on allies with Wane or you can shorten Buffs or Heals on enemies. Similarly Age can technically impact allies as a sort of lesser version of Wane. Prolong can extend Buffs and Heals on allies as well as extend Debuffs and DoTs on enemies. Luckily Wane and Prolong both fail to impact spells you don't want to touch. Some low magic Talents have semi-similar spells that do not discriminate, impacting all effects as Age does.

In any case I think looking at these spells we can all concur that Time Magic is the best magic. Advance/Prolong while expensive can significantly speed up DoT damage output. Or you could just use Prolong solo as an amazing duration boost. I spent all 13 SelP on Phase Boost and spell selection. I still had SkiP but I was going to save those a bit while I looked into my options in the capital.

Having met the requirement, finally, to use the teleporter I shot off to grab my vampire girl for the trip to the capital. With a combination of social skills and illusions, plus her own magical capabilities, we mashed the button to start the newest and best phase so far of our journies.

See you on the other side.