“…and we just sat there, smoking our cigars instead of worrying about it” finished Daniel.
“Does anyone have another story they wanna share?” asked Luke, his face illuminated by the flickering bonfire in front of him. A few seconds passed with no one stepping up so he nodded and stood up.
“Sean, Frank and Andrew died in battle like the brave soldiers they were. Tonight, we drink to their honor!” said Luke, raising the bottle of beer he’d purchased from the shop.
The others raised their bottles as well before they drank. As the survivors sat in silence around the small fire they’d created, the sun started to rise. When Luke was hit by the light of dawn, a small smile appeared on his face.
“Isn’t that symbolic? The light has returned and we should mourn no longer. We’re all upset and afraid but there’s still hope that things will be different in the next trial. There’s always hope, the only right move is to work even harder from now on” he said.
“Sarge is right, Sean would want us to have hope and I think Frank and Andrew would too” said Matt, tossing the purple hat into the fire. It turned out that he’d only bought that because of an inside joke he had with Sean.
Luke nodded and walked away from the fire with Matt in tow. The others weren’t quite so quick to move on and that was perfectly fine. The two of them approached the shop and Matt poked the sleeping cat awake.
“Why are all of you so mean!” she complained.
“Because our friends just died” said Matt.
“So? I wasn’t the one who killed them!”
“Shop” interjected Luke, knowing Matt and Maya would start a long argument if left unattended.
SHOP
Categories:
Food and Beverages
Weapons and Armour
Skill totems
Potions and Pills
Clothing and Accessories
Miscellaneous
I didn’t check out anything but food and beverages last time thought Luke. He and Matt had agreed that the first thing to do was to honor their fallen comrades. Now that he could properly explore the shop, he decided to start with weapons and armor.
Weapons and Armor
<ul>
<li> Steel sword (25 GP) - A regular sword made of steel. </li>
<li> Enhanced steel sword (150 GP) - A well-crafted sword made of enhanced steel. </li>
<li> Magesteel sword (400 GP) - A sword made of magesteel, creating a sharper blade with the ability to conduct Mana very well. </li>
</ul>
Those were the only swords available, everything else was other weapons and various types of armor which Luke wasn’t too interested in. He did want the magesteel sword but decided to check out the other categories first.
Skill totems
<ul>
<li>Mana infusion (200 GP) – Even the weakest and least of things can be made strong by the power you hold within you, Mana infusion allows you to strengthen other things with your own mana. </li>
<li>Spiritual sense (400 GP) – Don’t trust your eyes for they can deceive you but your soul will not, Spiritual sense allows you to expel your mana out of your body and use it to perceive your surroundings. </li>
<li>Breath control (100 GP) - Breathing, the one thing you never think about. But you should. Breath control allows you to gain more control over your breathing to increase the efficacy of your combat and stealth related skills. </li>
<li>Basic magic (500 GP) – Using your mana simply to enhance your physical prowess is like using a sword simply to cut wood. Basic magic allows you to use rudimentary forms of magic that have no element or law and opens up the possibility to learn advanced magic in the future. </li>
</ul>
“One of the skills you can buy is magic” said Luke offhandedly, glancing at Matt.
“REALLY?!” exclaimed the nerd but Luke went back to browsing the shop.
Potions and Pills
<ul>
<li>Lesser Health potion (10 GP) – A basic health potion that anyone can use </li>
<li>Health potion (25 GP) – The most common type of health potion, requires 15 vitality to use</li>
<li>Greater Health potion (80 GP) – An advanced health potion, requires 25 vitality and 20 toughness to use</li>
<li>Lesser Spirit potion (15 GP) – A basic mana restoration potion that anyone can use</li>
<li>Spirit potion (30 GP) – The most common type of mana restoration potion, requires 15 spirit to use</li>
<li>Full Restoration potion (200 GP) – A powerful potion that can restore mana, health and stamina. Requires all stats to be above 25 to use. </li>
</ul>
Luke willed the screen away and looked at the cat in front of him.
“The category says “potions and pills”, why are there only potions available?” he asked.
“More items will be available when you upgrade the shop” said Maya.
“How do we do that?” asked Luke.
“Now that you’ve unlocked game points you’ll earn more by killing monsters and completing trials so just accumulate 10,000 game points to upgrade the shop” she explained.
Luke nodded and called for the shop to return. He had been left with 1780 game points after buying the beers and as he made his purchases, it went down to a measly 200. As he exited the shop, several things appeared on the wooden table in front of him.
The magesteel sword was slightly longer than his current weapon and had a hilt and scabbard made of black leather. Luke assumed that the clear discs that were stacked on top of each other were the skill totems. He’d also bought 4 health potions and a greater health potion but he couldn’t tell the difference between the five vials of red liquid.
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“Can you take your stuff? Apparently I can’t buy magic until there’s nothing on the table” said Matt as Luke stared at the vials in confusion.
“Alright, just a second” he muttered as he picked up the magesteel sword.
As Luke moved to put the small potion vials in his pockets, he noticed something strange about the discs and looked at Maya.
“I only bought three skills but there’s four skill totems here” he said.
“The first one is an ability totem, not a skill totem. It’s given out for free when you make a purchase over a 100 GP” said Maya.
Luke picked it up to examine it but as soon as he did, it cracked in half and he received a notification from the system.
*Gained ability [Inventory (Lvl.1)]*
That’s a bit on the nose he thought. The video game themes extended further than he realized. Luke focused on the description just to be sure that it was what he thought it was.
[Inventory (Lvl.1)]- Pockets? Bags? Don’t be ridiculous… [Inventory] allows you to place any soulless object in a separate dimension where the flow of time is very slow.
Brilliant thought Luke, he would gladly forgive the stupid name for such a useful ability. He noticed Matt stare at him impatiently so he grabbed the potion vials, instinctively knowing how to send them to his inventory and picked up all the other skill totems.
*You have acquired [Spiritual sense (Lvl.1)]*
*You have acquired [Breath control (Lvl.1)]
*You have acquired [Basic magic (Lvl.1)]
With that, Luke all but ran to his new house, excited to try out these skills. He threw the door open to find a proper living room unlike the studio set up that he had in the last house. If he was to describe this place in a single word it would be “homely”.
Luke smiled as he stepped on to the soft white rug that lay on the dark wood floor. He heard the door shut behind him as he looked around the living room, admiring the maroon coloured leather armchairs and sofas that were arranged in front of the fireplace.
The white walls had four windows in total, two each on the parallel walls that didn’t have the door or fireplace on them. Luke went up the wooden staircase which directly led to his new bedroom.
There was nothing special about it, the floors, walls and layout of the windows were identical to the living room. Though unlike the old cabin, this bedroom had a white king sized bed as well as a bookshelf next to it. The door next to the shelf lead to his bathroom which was identical to the one he had in the old cabin, though he certainly couldn’t complain about that.
Let’s get started thought Luke as he sat on the bed. Nice as his new home was, he wanted to actually do what he’d said to the others. Luke knew they could have done better in the last trial and he was going to do everything in his power to create a better outcome for the next danger they faced.
Now, how do I actually use magic? thought Luke in confusion. The [Basic magic] skill hadn’t suddenly given him the ability to make things float or turn people into toads, he didn’t really know what to do.
Luke decided to just sense his mana to see if there was a change. At first, he didn’t feel anything but after a few seconds, he noticed that his mana felt more “independent”. Luke released it from his body and when he did, he could suddenly see all around him.
So this is spiritual sense he thought. It wasn’t really that he could “see” per se, Luke just had a vague sense of his surroundings, something he assumed would get clearer with practice. Still, this wasn’t [Basic magic] so he tried something different.
Instead of releasing the mana from all of his body, Luke tried getting it to pool under the skin of his palms like he did before he infused it into his sword. To his surprise, the mana didn’t pool under the skin like it usually did and just shot out of his hand, closing the bathroom door with its force.
This new development both excited and worried Luke. The potential for a long range attack was very welcome but Luke didn’t want to lose the ability to infuse his weapons with mana. He tried to pool mana under his palms once more, being more careful this time.
To his relief, the mana started to pool under his palms once more. Luke realized that earlier, there had been a sort of natural resistance against mana leaving his body, especially in large quantities. Now though, that resistance had disappeared and he could release his mana with ease.
Luke almost released the mana he’d accumulated under his palm but decided to play it safe and not risk damaging his new home. He stopped accumulating his mana under his palms and let things return to normal as he walked over to the window.
I better not break my leg he thought before opening the window and jumping out.
Luckily, Luke didn’t break his leg, his new stats left him just fine. He ignored the weird stares he got from some of the others and walked towards a nearby tree, causing mana to pool under his palms as he did.
When he was a couple feet away from its trunk, Luke released all the mana he accumulated and it shot towards the tree. A loud crash echoed through the village, the tree was almost split in half, it looked like it had been shot with a cannon.
*Acquired spell type: Mana projectile*
*Your skill in [Mana infusion] has reached level 4*
At this rate [Mana infusion] will be at level 50 next week thought Luke with a satisfied grin. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed others approach to see what the commotion was about but Luke’s focus was on the change in how his status was presented.
STATUS
Name: Luke Carpenter
Race: Human (Lesser)
Level: 12
Rank: 1
Class: Swordsman
Health: 100%
Stamina: 98%
Mana Reserves: 90%
Free points: 9
Skill points: 0
STATS
Strength: 52
Agility: 52
Toughness: 52
Stamina: 51
Vitality: 44
Perception: 46
Soul: 44
Spirit: 41
SKILLS
[Unarmed combat (Lvl.21)]
[Swordsmanship (Lvl.23)]
[Stealth (Lvl.13)]
[Tracking (Lvl.14)]
[Mana infusion (Lvl.4)]
SPELL TYPES
[Mana projectile (Lvl.1)]
ABILITIES
Active:
[Analyse (Lvl.1)]
[Dark vision]
[Cut (Lvl.2)]
[Mana shield (Lvl.1)]
[Inventory (Lvl.1)]
Passive:
[All speak]
TITLES
[Champion of the third village]
[Outworlder]
[Night Hunter]
[Ranker]
It appeared that the system had taken it upon itself to tidy up his cluttered status. The elaborations hadn’t disappeared though, as Luke focused on the new addition to his status, its explanation was revealed.
SPELL TYPES
[Mana projectile (Lvl.1)]- The simplest type of spell that involves hurling regular mana at your target…You currently possess basic skill in this type of magic.
“Deforestation is bad, you know” heard Luke, making him will his status away and look towards Matt.
“Please teach me how you did that” he continued, going in a completely different direction.
“Learn mana infusion first, you noob” said Luke with a laugh.
“You’re too old to be using slang, Sarge” said Johnny from the side.
“32 is young!” protested Luke.
“Do we go hunting today?” interjected Jim.
“Really? We can’t get a bloody break?” complained Johnny.
“No” said Luke, firmly.
The others turned to him in surprise, he hadn’t used such a commanding tone since they’d arrived in the new world.
“We can’t afford to take a break. The upgraded village and the shop open up new possibilities to gain power, but that doesn’t mean it’s all daisies and sunshine. We’ve been given these tools because the next trial will be far worse than this one was” continued Luke, making the mood darker at once.
Jim, Matt and Johnny looked at him with sadness in their eyes. But it was the others who were listening that looked truly miserable. Luke could feel the despair emanating from the non-rankers and something about it made him snap. He’d always prided himself on being rational but the hopelessness he felt from everyone was truly unbearable. It was so unbearable that it made him make the stupidest promise he’d ever made.
“It’ll be far worse but it doesn’t matter! I swear to you that no one else will die!”