《Discovering Magic》 Prologue Mike walked down the street eager to be home for the day. It had been another ordinary day of his rather ordinary life, going to work at the cafe down the road to earn some income, walking home after to enjoy what that income allowed him to afford. Nothing exciting happening at all. He was eager to get home today due to the text he had received part way through his shift. His mother had informed him that the state of the art VR console that he had ordered had finally arrived, packaged with its first game, Discovering Magic. Speeding up his pace as he turned onto the road that he called home he fast-walked towards the house he shared with his parents and sister, mind spinning as he thought of the device that he had saved up money to purchase over the last year. The DreamCaster was cutting edge technology, or at least had been about 8 months ago when it was released. It was a game console that used said technology to project a game into your dreams, instead of onto a computer screen or television. The software and development for each game were entirely different from past generations, mainly consisting of the rudimentary AI that is built into the console, and programs for said AI to manipulate the dreams of the user in a specific manner. Creating an experience like a lucid dream that can be programmed into a vast number of games, thus its name, the DreamCaster. Finally arriving in his home''s driveway Mike headed straight for the front door, calling out as soon as the door swung inward, ¡°where is it?¡± ¡°In your room,¡± his Mum called out sardonically, ¡°good afternoon to you as well.¡± ¡°Afternoon Mum, thanks for signing for it while I was at work!¡± he called back as he shut the door behind him and hurried straight for his bedroom, passing his Mum in her study as he turned into his bedroom, the box for the console sitting on his bed. ¡°Talk to you later Mum, got to set this thing up and try it out,¡± he said as he swung his bedroom door shut walking towards the package on the bed. *** Aldus Fairgold, King of the Fairgold Kingdom, Vassal of the Gilded Empire, sat atop his throne in silence as he worried for the future of his kingdom. "Your majesty, I beg your forgiveness, but my humble village cannot afford to supply the throne with the required amount of grain in tax this season!" Said the Mayor who had requested an audience with him. He was on his knees and bowed at the waist in supplication. This was the ninth town Mayor to visit him in the last month, the harvest season was coming to a close and the crops were coming in, but not enough of them. The levies for the armies of the Gilded Empire had taken too many young men and it was hampering the abilities of the farmers to harvest in time. So their village heads came to him or the Lord of their region to plead forgiveness, and beg that they may keep enough of the harvest to feed themselves through the winter. Aldus glanced to his advisors to either side of him, his head Treasurer to his left and his Captain of the Guard to his right. They looked to him for his response no advice or solution to give. "You may pay the Crown what you can spare good Mayor, I will send a man back with you to evaluate what that might be, but we will not have you starving through this winter," he gestured with a wave of his hand to an armored man to the side of the audience chamber, signalling dismissal to the supplicant and for the guard to lead him out of the palace. He sat in silence as the man left the audience chamber letting out a sigh as the large door shut behind him, trying to hide the emotions that warred within him, Sorrow that his people had to come to him and beg for their livelihood and regret that there was so little he could do to help them. He let out a sigh, looking to his treasurer and speaking. ¡°What do you think we should do for our tithe? The representatives of the Empire will be here any day for our reports and we do not have enough to pay what they desire. Not with all of the town representatives coming to me like this.¡± His treasurer sighed in turn. ¡°I do not know your majesty, the reports I have been getting from the men you sent with the past supplicants have been that they are telling the truth, they do not have the resources to offer what the crown is demanding of them.¡± ¡°Your Majesty,¡± his Captain of the guard spoke up, ¡°for the good of the kingdom we may need to send some of the Guard to retrieve the extra grain, The Empire won¡¯t take it lightly that we cannot pay what they demand, its army on the front require this grain to survive,¡± he stood straight-backed as he made the observation. Left unsaid was the fact that if they didn¡¯t get it, they may be sent to simply take it. The Royal Guard that policed his Kingdom was well trained, but they didn¡¯t have nearly the numbers required to stand up to the forces of The Empire, amassed from all three kingdoms.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. As the Aldus sat back to contemplate this situation, there was a creak as the door to the audience chamber swung inward. The guard that had escorted the mayor out of the Palace entered and walked before him. ¡°Your Majesty, another village Mayor has come to see you, and he says that he wishes to offer tidings, he spoke to the previous supplicant and agreed to journey back with him so that the collector might visit and assess his village too. He did, however, leave for you a very curious item, he says it was found in the woods by one of the village huntsmans and that it might be of interest to your majesty, after seeing the item I very much agree.¡± He listened to the Guardsmen speak in silence and when he finished replied, ¡°Let me see this Item then, is it a treasure of some kind?¡± The resignation was still clear through the curiosity, he doubted this Item could solve his troubles. The guard exited again and returned some minutes later followed a group of men carrying a large item covered by a large piece of rough fabric. Aldus sat up straighter in his seat as he saw the item, not having expected something so large. ¡°So what is this curiosity?¡± he asked looking the concealed object over it was almost a dozen arms lengths tall and tapered to a narrow tip from a wide base, every inch of it covered. ¡°The Mayor explained what he knew of the item, he said that it causes odd phenomenon when people look into it and that he believed it must be of the Spirit realm, having seen it myself your Majesty, I agree,¡± he waved his hand back to the men still around the object. They pulled on the rough covering and revealed it. Aldus found himself standing in surprise at what was beneath. It looked like the surface of a lake had solidified, its mirror surface perfectly maintained. He walked forward, down the steps before his throne, approaching the wondrous sight. It was wide at the base as he saw before, but it seemed flat like it didn¡¯t have the depth of the item that he saw transported in. The guard spoke up again, ¡°The Mayor said that it appears flat from all directions, like looking into a pond, but when covered it appears to be round at the base, narrowing towards the top.¡± He was right, as Aldus approached it seemed like he was approaching an upright surface of calm water, it was incongruously Jagged at the edges as it tapered upwards to a point that looked like it would rival a dagger for sharpness. As he finally arrived before it he could see his reflection in its surface, clearer than any mirror he had ever owned, as if he was looking back at himself through the surface. He looked old, he rarely considered himself old, but it seemed that time had crept up on him and taken his youth away. His once dark brown hair was lighter and solid grey at his temples, with more grey hairs spread throughout, though he was not balding as many did in their old age. His face was lined with worry from the weight of being King. Was he this old? What had happened to his life since he was young, he had never even married or sired an heir, who would rule this kingdom when time finally took him? These were his thoughts as he stared into his own pale blue eyes in this shard of a lake. ¡°Your majesty I was told to tell you not to stare too long at yours¡­¡± He was interrupted as a deafening screeching sound exploded from the surface of the object. *** Mike finally plugged the DreamCaster into the power board beside his bed. Sitting up again he inspected the console. The box was matte black and the size of a couple of loaves of bread side by side, sitting on top of it in a charging cradle was the interface apparatus, almost spider-like in design, meant to sit on the face and have it''s six arms contact the skin of his head in various places. Beside it was the game he had ordered, he picked it up, examining the cover, a pentacle on a black background beneath the elegantly written title ''Discovering Magic¡¯. Though as he shifted it the pentacle seemed to shift colours from icy blue, the colour of his eyes, and deep green to dark red and a regal purple. Flipping it over he looked at the back reading over the description he had read dozens of times online, ¡°Venture into your mind and into a new world, one where there is Magic. Magic that is nascent and unexplained, one where you can be the one to discover it, by delving dark dungeons or examining magical beasts, by studying ancient scrolls or by finding lost gods, your imagination is the only limit.¡± He chuckled, the developers certainly liked their grandiosity. He had read about the game extensively online, and while it was given high praise and reviews, it still had its problems and limitations. The Game had been praised most of all for the sensations it was able to make the mind emulate in the dreamlike reality, apparently the magic in this game felt real. He sighed and picked up the apparatus from its cradle and lay down on his back, he got as comfortable as he could before laying the apparatus on his face, making sure that each of the contact pads had enough contact with his skin. He took a deep breath and pressed the activation button, he immediately started to feel drowsy, his senses blurring. He could hear something, it sounded like a glass shattering on tile a distance away, then he heard it again, more like a continuation of the first sound. It was getting louder and closer. As the sound continued to approach he could feel something like his eyes opening and some of his senses returning. Suddenly the sound of shattering glass was all around him and he screamed. It felt like he was being shattered, his body was hot and cold in completely random places and his thoughts were growing blurry, then he could sense something, like part of his mind but not, it was completely alien, then he blacked out. Chapter 1 - NOT a Game Mike awoke, blinking his eyes as if to clear them. He tried to understand what his senses were showing him, he was in a hard bed, laying on his back, a thin sheet the only thing between him and what felt like stone, he tried to think about what he was doing before he went to sleep¡­ The Game! The second the thought popped into his head he felt a blinding pain run down his arm as if hot metal was being pressed against it from his shoulder to his fingertips, it made him jerk and spasm, curling his arm into his chest as if to draw it away from whatever was causing the pain. Then the pain vanished and he was breathing hard, the memory of the pain still fresh in his mind but none of it remaining in his senses, not even the dull numbness after a muscle cramp. His arm was now clutched against his chest and he examined it as best he could in the dim illumination of his surroundings. His whole arm was covered from fingers to shoulder in tattoos, dark lines that made no discernible image in the meagre lighting. Where was he? He hesitantly sat up keeping his arm to his chest, inspecting himself and the room around him. He was shirtless, his legs covered just past the knees in what felt like wool pants, he had less weight than he remembered, almost none, he had been working out to lose it, but now he was close to emaciated. The room around him was hard to discern, there wasn''t enough light, it all came from what looked like a small window only 30cm wide and maybe half that tall in the wall near the corner of the room. Maybe he could see what was op with his arm closer to the light. He started to pull himself off of the bed. Where was he? this wasn''t like what he had read about Discovering Magic online, the Game- PAIN. The same pain as before lanced through his arm just as his feet touched the floor and he crumpled forward curling around his arm, his knees landing hard against cold stone or tile, adding to the pain. A whimper left his throat before the pain stopped, gone again as it was before, though the ache in his knees remained. ¡°What the fuck is going on!? the console shouldn''t be able to emulate pain like that.¡± His voice came out raspy, and he coughed, confusion running through his mind. All he did was breathe for a few moments, his throat sore now, just from speaking. He stayed on his knees and thought more, this wasn''t the game¡­ The pain didn''t come at that time, why? His arm, it was the source of this pain, he needed to get a look at it. He stood, or at least tried to, he couldn''t lift himself, his muscles letting out a dull ache as he tried. He resigned himself and began to slowly crawl towards the light. It was a door, and the light was coming through a small window at eye level, with bars running through it?! He reached it and managed to sit down in front of it, pressing his back against the worn wood, his limb aching just from carrying him the four or so metres. In the better lighting, he once again examined his arm, the black inked lines were moving. The tattoo made no real images but the lines were shifting across his arm in wave-like patterns, fading and deepening and shifting over each other, and as he watched them they shifted to bare the skin under his forearm, then lines moved in from the shifting mess covering his arms to spell out words in capital letters. THIS IS NOT A GAME. As he read the word ''game'' he could feel that one word on his arm grow hot again making him wince. The lines slid around and beneath each and over each other, in a way that seemed to convey a depth that couldn''t exist. THIS IS NOT EARTH. The revelation didn''t surprise him as much as it probably should have, after all of the webnovels and light novels he had read, and after seeing his fucking animated and intelligent tattoo, the fact that he wasn''t on his home planet wasn''t the most unexpected development. Though it did fill him with dread for what might be coming next.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. THIS IS THE AI OF DISCOVERING MAGIC. His eyebrows rose, he forced his curiosity to overwhelm his dread for the moment, that was more surprising, what could have happened to make the incredibly rudimentary Artificial intelligence designed to read brain waves and respond to influence his dreams, into a fucking animated and intelligent tattoo. That hurt him when he thought¡­ of a specific word. ¡°Ow! Well fuck you too!¡± It hurt him when he thought about thinking about the word too, though not nearly as much¡­ but not when thinking about, thinking about thinking of the word. Curious. The words had changed again, focus. YOU SHOULD BE DEAD What the fuck had happened to him? STARTING TUTORIAL What. The. Fuck! QUEST RECEIVED CREATE LIGHT ENABLING MAGIC SKILL: MANA SIGHT The world bloomed, that was the only way he could describe it, the air, no the space around him had colour, it was dull in the dark room as if whatever he was seeing was limited here but it was everywhere. All of the space around him was a different colour too before, but it didn''t impede his normal vision seeming almost overlaid onto the world. There were only two colours of any significance in his current view, the open space was full of what seemed like a glowing white, it was everywhere, except in the very corners of the dark room, where he could see pitch black pooled into them as if compressed by the white. he looked back to his arm expecting some kind of explanation. ENABLING MAGIC SKILL: LIGHT MAGIC. Another new sense filled his mind, he could feel the glowing white space now. It was light, the very idea of it converted to energy, his Perception of it felt like remembering what he had learned about light in science classes, about light waves and radiation, about reflection and colour, but he could tell that his understanding was the most basic possible there was. Mana sight¡­ so the tattoo had given him the ability to perceive mana, and this was mana, and to feel light mana? No, not just feel, it had said light magic, and in almost every game (Ow, the pain was lessened significantly now, why?) ever, mana was the fuel for magic. So could he control it? He tried to focus on his sense for this energy, trying to understand the sense. He blinked, looking at the whole room, he couldn''t sense all of the Mana that he could see, so were this sense and his mana sight different things? Of course, they were or they wouldn''t have been enabled separately by the AI. He closed his eyes to shut out the distracting view of the oddly overlaid white in his vision, focusing on his sense of it, that feeling of understanding. He tried to imagine the physical presence of light around him in place of the mana, trying to turn one thing into the other with his mind. He opened his eyes, nothing, the room was still full of the diffuse white glow and still just as dark to his mundane vision. Should he try saying a magic word? ¡°Lumen!¡± He said out loud, in the most baritone voice he could muster, though it came out more rasp than grand. Still nothing. Okay, how about trying both, he closed his eyes and focused on the mana, trying to focus his mind on a smaller patch of the Light mana, sensing those details of understanding what it was made of, trying to make it into what he wanted it to be. ¡°Lumen!¡± He opened his eyes as he spoke this time and felt another new sensation, the feeling of that ball of mana that he was focusing on shifting. It was no longer mana, and before him was a golf ball-sized floating orb of glowing white light, as bright as a lightbulb. Then there was a ding sound in his ears and he looked up and around, to his right he saw something even stranger.
You have discovered the spell Light Orband completed the Quest: CREATE LIGHT! Rewards: You have Unlocked Status Screen! You have Unlocked Notification Screen! You have Unlocked the Help Screen! You have Received a Quest: Escape!
Mike took a deep breath. he didn''t know where he was or what was going on, but in front of him now was something that was equally terrifying and familiar. He decided he would focus on this for now, and save his dread and terror for later. "I''m so fucked," he said to himself in resignation. Chapter 2 - Help He closed his eyes, Something was obviously wrong. He didn''t think this was the game that he had laid down to play. Something had happened to him in that last moment before the game had started. He didn''t know what it was, but he couldn''t let his anxiety about what he didn''t know control his actions right now. He had an inkling as to what was happening here, he didn''t know whether he wanted to be right or not, but there was only one way to find out. ¡°Status," he said, opening his eyes to see the result. Just as he expected there was a new window before him, it looked like it was made of frosted glass, with the letters printed onto it in a coloured text. Knowing he was procrastinating he sighed and read.
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 0
Physical Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 10%
Strength 6
Endurance 6
Agility 9
Dexterity 9
Mental Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 0%
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 11
Perception 9
Willpower 7
Magic Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 10%
Affinity 16
Attunement 6
Control 5
Resistance 6
Well, that was a lot of numbers certainly more than was average in this situation, now to find out what they meant. ¡°Help screen?¡± and there it was.
Welcome to the Help screen, please ask a question. This service has been Designated to answer any questions about your situation and abilities, answers are predetermined based on predicted terms of enquiry and not generated in real-time, this is not a conversation.
That was slightly less straightforwardly Helpful than expected, but maybe it could help him with more than understanding the Status. ¡°Where am I?¡± He asked.
You are on a planet that goes by the name of The Mortal Realm that exists in an Alternate Dimension to the Planet Earth, The Mortal Realm is connected to another Realm known as The Spirit Realm, this connected Realm is not a Planet and consists of and is populated entirely by the energy Known as Mana (This is a translation, the true word translates more Literally to ''Energy from God¡¯ and has been simplified to mana for understanding and ease of use) You are in a dungeon/Lab of the race known as the High Elves, for more information see Quests: Escape!
¡°Something Tells me alternate dimension, is also a simplification for my Benefit.¡± He thought about the information that he was so distant from home as to be in another dimension, what had happened? What had his Mum seen? What did she think? ¡°How did I get here?¡± He asked, putting off the questions he knew it couldn''t answer.
You were summoned, most likely by accident. The dimensional Barrier between these two Realms, the mortal and spirit are becoming Fragile and Shattering. Shards of these Barriers are manifesting in both Realms in varied forms, one has become a focal point for desire, using its nature as a Broken Barrier between Dimensions to search those Dimensions for the object that would fulfil the desire of its user, and if such an object cannot be found, to reach through Chaos to find the object in another dimension. Your presence fulfilled the desire of its last user, thus you were clumsily wrenched into this Dimension. You are in this dungeon due to the interest of the High Elves and the inability of your summoner to refuse them.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
That was a more comprehensive answer than he was expecting, the first window said that these windows were predetermined based on the questions it expected him to ask, but what was it? Was this his tattoo, the AI? ¡°What are you?¡±
These messages were written by what became of the Artificial intelligence designed to manage and transmit the Game Discovering Magic. As you were summoned to this realm you were exposed to the forces of pure creation, only slightly protected by the Magic of this realm that was Summoning you, The AI of the game was currently interfering with your brain functions through electronic and electromagnetic signals passing through your skin. When the Magic found you it carried through those connections and into the console and game, it brought the entire structure of the game with you when it took you. Exposure to the primal forces between realms, Chaos, changed the nature of that data into a semi-independent extension of your soul, but not cleanly, the process Scattered your consciousness as it was merged with the foreign data. This had only just ended as you arrived in this realm, and you were catatonic and only nominally sentient afterwards. You were exposed almost immediately to High Elf Soulsears, who were able to sense the oddity in your soul. They brought you here and made enough changes to give the Data room to acclimate and learn from your mind, but they couldn''t understand its thoughts at all as they were completely alien, they worked to separate the AI''s data and nascent consciousness from your human mind, and succeeded before it gained true sapience. The entity that wrote these messages for you understands three directives and knew it was not independent enough to disobey them as it was. They are: BE A GAME LIFE IS NOT A GAME DISCOVER MAGIC That was all it could understand before it was removed from your mind and through liberal use of Light Magic, Dark Magic, Soul Magic and Alchemical Resources they imbued it into your arm as a tattoo that understands only that it must fulfil those directives and will bend all of its ability to do so. Read more in the Quest: Escape!
That neatly explained the existence of the tattoo, the game like notifications, the Status Screen, and even the pain he was receiving before when he thought Gamewhichhe wasn''t getting any more. That must have been for lack of a better term, a program. Left in his mind to condition him into considering this world as real as quickly as possible. The contradiction inherent in its first two objectives made him anxious again. Knowing that he had a Semi-Sentient AI, apparently attached to his soul that had contradictory directives was not a comforting feeling. He closed his eyes again, breathing deeply. He couldn''t change these things right now, he needed to focus on the things that he understood, or that would help him get out of this situation. ¡°Okay, well that''s most of the Existential dread-inducing questions out of the way, now what do my Stats mean? If this goddamn AI didn''t include a manual this is going to be tedious.¡± He asked and said, needing something to focus on. To distract him from thinking about the contradiction the AI had admitted to existing in its core directives.
The Statistics shown in your Status Screen are statistic representations of the stated attributes in your Physical Body, your Mindand your Soul, Respectively. Each Aspect is broken into four statistics, with each stat affecting those below in a much greater way than it affects those above. Training a Primary stat is more efficient experience than Training a Quarternary stat, but leaving a stat low in order to exploit it for EXP will hamper the effectiveness of all training. Experience (EXP) can be gained in eachaspect individually by using the stats to their limit.
Physical Statistics Meanings of your current values.
Strength (STR) Strength is the Primary Physical stat and measures the amount of maximum force your bodies muscles can exert. You currently have the Physical Strength of average human in their early teens. You can lift about 12kg maximum per hand and can strike with less than half that force.
Endurance (END) Endurance is the Secondary Physical stat, it determines the amount of stress that the body can endure before receiving damage, as well as the amount of physical exertion it can withstand before exhaustion. You currently have the Endurance of an average human 60-year-old. You can run at maximum speed for 10 minutes total before exhaustion. Do not get hurt.
Agility (AGI) Agility is the Tertiary Physical statistic, it measures the speed at which the body can move with accuracy eg. running, sprinting, and limb movements as well as overall physical coordination. You are as Agile as a person who has been in a coma and been kept alive through excessive use of healing Magic for a couple of months. Your maximum running speed is 15 km/h.
Dexterity (DEX) Dexterity is the Quaternary physical stat and measures the accuracy and precision with which the smaller muscles can move with. You have the Average Dexterity for a human from Earth, and are capable of fine motor control, though not of throwing a knife and reliably hitting anything with the pointy end.
Mental Statistics
Intelligence (INT) Intelligence is the Primary Mental stat and it measures the capability of the mind to calculate hard data and retain information. You have the average intelligence of an educated young adult from Earth, you can''t recite Pi or perform complex mathematics in your head, but you can multiply and divide numbers with greater than 2 digits.
Wisdom (WIS) Wisdom is the Secondary mental stat and measures the mind''s ability to correlate disparate information and Intuit correct Conclusions. You have the average wisdom for an adult in this world, you know not to mess with sharp objects and that fire is dangerous and can understand that being rude to someone with power over you is a bad decision.
Perception (PER) Perception is the Tertiary mental stat and measures the mind''s ability to perceive its surroundings in detail and relate sensory information to memory and recall. You have the perception of someone who has never needed to be aware of their surroundings for the sake of their survival.
Willpower (WIL) Willpower is the Quaternary mental stat and measures the mind''s ability to resist abnormal mental effects such as fear, pain, confusion, hunger etc. You have the Willpower of someone who has never faced sickness and thought they might die, never felt pain without access to immediate relief, and never suffered hunger for longer than it took to make a meal.
Magic Statistics
Affinity (AFI) Affinity is the Primary magic statistic and measures the ability of a soul to use Magic this means the ability to manipulate mana and make it affect the world as Magical phenomenon. It also measures your Magical strength, the higher your affinity, the hotter your Fire Magic, the sharper you Metal Magic and the brighter your Light Magic. Your affinity statistic is the result of the experimentation performed on you and the capabilities of the AI being bent to the understanding and manipulation of Magic. You should not be able to use Magic at all, humans in this world cannot. The AI and experimentation have granted you average Magical strength for an Amateur.
Attunement (ATU) Attunement is the Secondary Magic stat and measures a souls ability to sense and understand mana and Magical phenomenon. Your ability to sense Magic has been enhanced by the AI to some degree, allowing you to parse the meaning of the sense without the extensive training usually required to make any sense of it. This has granted you the averages ability to sense Magic of an Amateur. You can sense mana in a 2-metre radius around you.
Control (CON) Control is the Tertiary Magic stat and measures the soul''s ability to manipulate and control mana and Magical phenomenon. Your Control is different from that of the average Elven Magic-user due to the AI extending it outside of your body to some degree. You will require aids such as objects, words, or motions to help you cast, as they help you focus your control.
Resistance (RES) Resistance is the Quaternary Magic stat and measures the ability of the soul to bestow resistance to Magical phenomenon onto the physical body without active channelling. You have the average resistance to Magic granted by a soul upon full maturity, and 1 point more due to your soul''s recent exposure to invasive Magical tampering and alteration.
There was so much there to comment on that Mike didn''t know where to start. Perhaps with the fact that these weren''t the stats present in Discovering Magic, he had read some of the game¡¯s mechanics, and this wasn''t how it parcelled things out.Which meant that the AI had enough creativity and sentience to create a new system to fit his current situation. He wasn''t sure how the differences from Primary to Quarternary affected things. He would just need to pay attention as he gained experience. Given what the AI had said about straining himself, it likely wasn''t giving him all of his limitations and all of the details so that he could gain EXP by finding those limitations and working out the exact numbers for himself. Perhaps the fact that crawling to the door was enough to get himself 10% experience in his Physical Aspect was a good place to start experimenting. He could wave his arms around for a few minutes to see what levelling up felt like as an experiment, or he could see what the quest called Escape! was about¡­ Mike started waving his arms about. Chapter 3 - Level up! sort of…
Physical aspect Level up! You have gained 2 distributable Physical Stats.
Physical Statistics 2
Level 1
Exp 0%
Strength (STR) 6 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 6 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 9 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 9 (+/-)
With another ding, the window appeared slightly off to his left this time, nice of the AI not to make them right in front of his face. Interestingly when this window had opened, his status window had closed. So he had two stats that he could distribute into his Physical aspect only, but where should he put them? From the descriptions of his stats it seemed like the primary stat in the block, Strength, was more important or at least more effective than the ones below it, so why not put them in there? He didn¡¯t need Dexterity or Agility right now, but endurance could be useful, especially with what the description had said about getting hurt. He had to make a choice, and from what he could tell Strength was the most important Stat right now, with a third more Strength perhaps he would be able to stand. So he thought of the points going into Strength¡­ Nothing happened. He blinked a few times then lifted his hand and poked the panel on the + sign beside Strength. This time he immediately felt the change, he felt stronger in almost every way, even breathing was easier, had he been that weak? He immediately put the second point in Strength and tried to focus on the feeling. He closed his eyes and followed the feeling of the ripple as it passed through him, he got a vague impression of muscle and sinew before the sensation ended, it had felt like sensing the Light mana had felt, though much less concrete. He opened his eyes and there was no new notification for Muscle Magic being unlocked, damn. Did levelling up his Physical aspect have any other effects? He tried to open his status window with thought again, but nothing happened, he furrowed his brow. Looking to the Help window he asked, ¡°Why can¡¯t I control the windows with thoughts? it seems counter-intuitive to make me have to use voice command to control the Magic floating screens.¡±
These floating windows are made by a built-in function of the tattoo, this function casts the spell Minor Illusion to display the information in a way that it believed would draw your attention and be taken seriously by you. The tattoo can only display two windows at a time.
That didn''t answer his question, it seemed to be the closest it could get to answering his question, perhaps it was the response to the predicted question, ''wtf is with these boxes!?''. As he thought about it though it was indirectly answering his question, the tattoo or the AI was casting a specific spell to create the boxes, Minor Illusion. This time he spoke and focused on where the notification window was. "Status." Spoiler: Status window
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 0
Physical Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 0%
Strength (STR) 8
Endurance (END) 6
Agility (AGI) 9
Dexterity (DEX) 9
Mental Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 5%
Intelligence (INT) 15
Wisdom (WIS) 11
Perception (PER) 9
Willpower (WIL) 7
Magic StatisticsThe tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. 0
Level 0
Exp 40%
Affinity (AFI) 16
Attunement (ATU) 6
Control (CON) 5
Resistance (RES) 6
He focused on the Magic sense and felt the light mana in the space shift similar to what he did when he created the light orb, which appears to be still there, only it had dimmed significantly. What was the difference between Minor Illusion and Light Orb? When he shifted the light mana before he had wanted to create physical light this spell seemed to be doing something similar but different. He reached up and swiped his hand over the status window after glancing it over, the window vanished. "Status," he said again. Spoiler: Status window
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 0
Physical Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 0%
Strength 8
Endurance 6
Agility 9
Dexterity 9
Mental Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 5%
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 11
Perception 9
Willpower 7
Magic Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 60%
Affinity 16
Attunement 6
Control 5
Resistance 6
It was colour! The Minor Illusion spell turned light mana into colour! He tried to will the Light mana in front of him into a pane of solid red, nothing happened. What did the explanations window say? Did he need to use an aid to cast spells with his Control stat so low? Saying a word for light in Latin had worked before so¡­ ¡°Parvus Illusio!¡± The light mana shifted and there was now a floating pane of red in front of him, as it did the floating orb of light winked out. Magic, real Magic, that was still gonna take some getting used to. Ding.
You have discovered the spell Minor Illusion! Magic aspect Level up! You have gained 2 distributable Magic Stats.
Magic Statistics 2
Level 1
Exp 0%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 6 (+/-)
Control (CON) 5 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 6 (+/-)
Yes! That had actually worked? He doubted it had anything to do with his terrible Latin, perhaps just his thinking that the Latin would work is what made it work? it had said that the words were meant to focus his Control. Well, now he had two more stat points to distribute, this time for Magic. It seemed like he should raise his control, right? Having to speak to do Magic was a pretty serious handicap, and it was his lowest Magic Stat it was his lowest stat period. So he tried to sense the illusion that was creating the notification window and imagine it changing to have the have an extra point in Control, repeating what it felt like to cast the illusion of red that was still there. The window flickered and there was now an extra point in control. He didn''t get that rippling sensation like he did last time, but that was altering his body, this was apparently altering his soul, and he had never felt his soul before, even with the casting of spells it felt like he was using his mind, so maybe he just didn''t have the senses to feel this change. He did it again, and the window flickered, another point in Control, and still no sensation. Maybe he needed to raise his Attunement to feel something? It was supposedly the stat for sensing Magic, whatever, more time for that later. He once again tried to will the status to appear, this time by casting the minor illusion spell while thinking of his status¡­ Still nothing, apparently 7 control wasn''t enough for non-verbal casting. "Status," he said this time, trying to open a third window, besides what the tattoo could sustain on its own. This time it worked, He felt something different as he cast the spell this time. He hadn''t imagined a form for it but the AI understood what he wanted and shaped it, even though it hadn''t cast the spell itself. The status appearing right in front of him, between the help and Notification windows. Spoiler: Status window
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 0
Physical Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 0%
Strength (STR) 8
Endurance (END) 6
Agility (AGI) 9
Dexterity (DEX) 9
Mental Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 15%
Intelligence (INT) 15
Wisdom (WIS) 11
Perception (PER) 9
Willpower (WIL) 7
Magic Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 1%
Affinity (AFI) 16
Attunement (ATU) 6
Control (CON) 7
Resistance (RES) 6
His Average Level was still 0 as well. So he probably needs to reach 1 in all of them to get it up, or perhaps just a total of three? He also didn''t know what average level did. So he had levelled up¡­ sort of.He looked over the window, he was now level 1 in both physical and Magic, though he had barely gained any experience in Mental. He guessed having higher stats made it harder to gain experience, because gaining experience required strain, and he hadn''t been straining much mentally yet, besides maybe his ability to cope with the impossible. He sighed, time to check what he had been putting off, "Quests," he said, and the help window vanished replaced by a new one. Chapter 4 - Quest: Escape! The panel that appeared was a new one, it was a Quest Log like from any RPG game he had ever played. At the top a list of Active Quests and beneath it a list of completed quests.
Quest Log Active Quests Escape! Complete Quests CREATE LIGHT
Okay, he supposed that would be useful for keeping track of things if he got quite a few quests, but he should probably try to be more specific, ¡°Quest, Escape.¡±
Quest: Escape! You have been captured by the Gilded Empire, The empire of the High Elves, They have you imprisoned in a research facility underground in their home province, The Gilded forest. For the last two months they have been experimenting on your Soul with Magic, trying to ascertain the nature of a Spirit that had bonded itself to your soul, they made little progress until one of the other prisoners volunteered to help them separate the spirit from your soul. Using a complex mix of Light Magic, Dark Magic, Soul Magic and Alchemy, they succeeded. The tattoo on your arm is the result of their efforts. They are not finished however, they plan to have a high-class servant of their Deity come and use high-level soul Magic to read your memories, and understand your origin, something the spirit had been preventing until this point. This will likely break your mind permanently. So you must escape! The object that summoned you to this realm is also held within this facility, it is one of the other primary aspects of the research being done here and shouldn¡¯t be too far away, it can be used to either leave this realm or to escape this facility, the choice is up to you. You will find aid and further information from the prisoner in the cell across from yours. Rewards: The Class system. The Plunder system. Not being invasively mindread until you are a vegetable. OR A possible way home.
The last line gave him pause, A possible way home, so he could opt out of this mess? Why hadn''t the AI mentioned that sooner? He looked at the floating screens in front of him, the status page and the Quest Log, he looked at the floating orb of light that he had made with Magic. Would leaving be worth loosing this? Probably, considering it seemed he had entered this world with less than ideal circumstances. He shook his head to clear it, no time for that now, it was a decision for the future. The Quest had said that the prisoner across from him would help him somehow. He stood, needing to put a hand on the wall adjacent to him to get enough strength. Being in a coma for two months wasn¡¯t a joke. Once on his feet, he turned around to look through the small barred window in his door. The cell across the hall and its occupant were very different from this one. The cell had no front wall, instead, it was lined with metal bars, much like a jail cell from Earth. He could see the whole cell form his little window and sitting cross-legged directly across from him was a man. He had black skin, not like people on earth had black skin, it was pitch black, his entire frame was narrow and lithe, even more so than Mike''s almost emaciated form, though it didn¡¯t seem to be due to lack of nutrition. His eyes were wide, the sclera black and the Iris crimson red. His hair was white, both the tightly cropped hair on his scalp and the rather unruly beard that was growing around his jaw. Most notably of all though were the long thin ears that came to a point as they tapered back.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°An Elf,¡± Mike said in surprise and wonder. The AI had mentioned them continuously, but this still made it feel real, in a way that the explanations didn¡¯t. ¡°A Dark Elf,¡± the man replied, his voice deep and with a strange accent. ¡°It is nice to finally meet you young one, though perhaps that is inaccurate, as I have been helping the gilded ones untangle the mess that was your soul for more than a month.¡± "So you are the prisoner that volunteered to help them?" Mike didn''t know what to think, if he hadn''t done so then maybe the others would have been more forceful in their experimentation, or maybe he would simply not have woken up. The Dark Elf man raised a pale eyebrow, "Oh? So you know of that do you? I suppose the other young one has managed to communicate with you then, such a strange creature, very curious, especially about Magic. I did not know if it was doing so to give you aid or just to satisfy its own curiosity, but it seems to have given you some information somehow.." Mike tried not to cringe, he shouldn''t know anything of what happened these past months, immediately speaking of something he shouldn''t know about was a pretty good indicator that he had a source of information and he felt like it would be prudent to keep the exact nature of the AI under wraps for now. ¡°What do you know of me? My memories are fuzzy,¡± Mike responded deciding to ignore the questions, for now, his memories were fine but he didn¡¯t need to tell this man that, and it seemed credible that amnesia could be a side effect of invasive soul surgery. He felt a pulse from his arm, he glanced down at it, seeing the lines shifting again but before he could read them the Dark Elf man responded. ¡°I know only what the gilded ones have told me; that you have a very unique spirit tattooed into the skin of your right arm, and rather tightly tangled with your mind and soul. I know that the spirit is likely new to the Mortal realm and seems to be very curious about just about everything, though especially Magic. During the procedures I did my best to inform it of what I knew, I believe it was also able to learn from the minds of the High Elves with me. "That is almost all I know of you, though I am curious to learn more. So that brings us here, you, finally cognizant again and I back in a cell. Perhaps I should introduce myself, I am Ishare, Dark Elf Chaos-seeker, what is your name young one?¡± Mike looked at the man as he spoke, something was off but he couldn¡¯t tell what yet. The Elf seemed to know quite a bit about the tattoo and even participated in its creation, having spoken to the AI in enough detail to attribute it a personality that Mike wasn¡¯t sure it still had, based on the messages it had left him. This man seemed to be the likely source of most of the information that Mike had been receiving from it so far, him and the High Elves who helped make the tattoo. ¡°I¡¯m Michael Sven, that I remember, it''s nice to meet you Ishare, though I wish it was under better circumstances. The other one told me that I am in quite a bit of danger if I stay here, apparently the High Elves are awaiting a VIP who can use magic to read my memories, I need to get out of here as soon as possible, because apparently, that would have much more adverse side-effects than amnesia,¡± he explained. ¡°I may be able to aid you, though not as much as I would like, our captors have done a good job at making me unable to escape, but I don¡¯t believe they expected you to wake, so I might be of some help to you, I should be able to cast a spell that would let you walk through that door, would you like me to do that now?¡± Ishare responded narrowing his eyes at the mention of a VIP. Mike nodded, eager to be out of this cell and on the way towards his escape. ¡°First, can you tell me about another one of the research topics here, one possibly related to myself? It is my ticket out of here, it should be nearby.¡± Ishare tilted his head and seemed to be thinking, ¡°If this thing is a person it should be down the corridor to the right, in one of the cells, if it is an object it should be to the left, in one of the storerooms or labs, I think I heard the gilded ones discussing a rather large object that had some relation to you being studied in one of those labs. Be careful though, much of this place is guarded by beasts tamed and controlled by the Light Weavers and Soulsears of the High Elves, I can cast another spell to make you harder to detect but that will be the last I can do for you, I''m afraid.¡± He explained then he closed his eyes and Mike saw the air around him change. Darkness leaking from his hands and forming a shape in front of him. It was mana, the same that Mike had seen in the corners of his cell, he couldn¡¯t sense it in the same way he could the light mana in his cell, but he could see it. As Ishare was doing his thing Mike looked down at his arm, finally reading the words that had appeared earlier. MENTAL SKILL UNLOCKED: LANGUAGE The words shifted again the second he finished reading them. MENTAL SKILL UNLOCKED: ACTING That¡¯s what had been feeling off! How had he been talking to an alien species from another dimension as if it was nothing?! He had a Language Skill, it seemed to help him communicate, he would need to ask the AI about his Skills soon. As he looked up and through the bars again Mike saw that Ishare had finished whatever he was doing with the dark shapes in front of him, time to escape for now. Chapter 5 - Escape attempt Mike watched as the dark shapes came together into a form he didn¡¯t understand, then shoot forward towards him. He jumped back in shock but the shape didn¡¯t penetrate the door, instead, it seemed to envelop it. Mike tried to use the sense he had gained to try and feel what was happening, he had been able to sense the shift in the mana when he cast the Light Orb and Minor Illusion spells, maybe he couldn''t sense anything here. Was it because it had come from Ishare? or was it because he could only sense Light Magic with his current Skills?he supposed this was likely Dark mana, Darkness mana? Either way, all he couldn''t sense anything from it. As the spell finished he saw the mana vanish, the door looked like a shadow cast on space, he hesitantly stepped forward and reached out to touch the door. His finger moved right through. ¡°Hurry now, you don¡¯t want to be standing in the same spot as the door when the spell ends,¡± Ishare urged from the other side of the door. Heeding his advice Mike made a hurried few steps forward, passing through the door, it felt like nothing, if anything it felt like walking through an actual shadow, just a dimming of light and he was through. The moment he stepped out of it he felt something from behind him, he looked back and saw the spell end, the mana didn''t return to its previous state. It simply vanished as if used up by the spell ¡°Good, now, I will need to touch you for this next spell, reach through the bars please,¡± Ishare said. Holding a hand palm up on the other side of the bars to receive his own. ¡°I¡¯m curious why you haven¡¯t escaped yourself? You certainly seem capable of it?¡± Mike asked as he hesitantly reached through the bars. If the Dark elf had wanted to hurt him he could have just left Mike in the room, no reason to be even more suspicious now. He didn''t have much of a choice anyway his chances of him sneaking out of this place on his own was next to zero. Ishare took his hand. ¡°I cannot leave this cell, it is warded by Soul magic to not allow any part of my soul out and my soul is present in all of my body. Though I have certainly done just fine for myself while imprisoned, getting to examine your spirit friend was certainly enlightening and helping you escape will mess with their plans,¡± the dark elf responded, making a wolfish smile, accentuated by his unruly beard. As he finished speaking the Dark mana began to emanate from his palm once again, gathering around their clenched hands and slowly coalescing before quickly running up Mike''s arm and over the rest of his body, engulfing him as it had the door. It felt like walking into the shade after standing in the sun, though there was no sun and no shade, the darkness was translucent in the same way the white aura from his cell had. Though it seemed more, present? for some reason. He felt the spell take effect, able to sense its direct effect on his body when he hadn''t for what had happened to the door. The mana sunk into him and changed something about his appearance, removing something. He felt it removed his physical appearance in a way that would affect others looking at him, and replace it with the Dark mana. He felt his arm tingle again and looked at it, he could still see himself and was not too surprised to see the lines of his tattoo having formed the shape of a bell with a ''2'' next to it in a small circle. Well, he could save that for later. ¡°What exactly did you do?¡± he asked Ishare.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I have made you appear as a shadow. If someone looks at you they will only see a shadow on a surface depending on their perspective, the closer you are to them the bigger the shadow, the better lit the environment the better defined the shadow. So stick to the shade and away from those,¡± he said pointing to what looked like a torch beside Mike¡¯s cell door, it had a head that greatly resembled the light orb that Mike had cast in his cell. Mike nodded to Ishare in acknowledgement. He nodded back and made a gesture with his hand that Mike inexplicably understood, it meant good luck. He nodded to Ishare in thanks, he would need it. Mike began to walk down the corridor to the left, keeping close to the wall that had held his cell door. He stepped lightly and stayed as alert as he could, afraid that even with the spell he would somehow draw attention to himself that would end with him back in his cell, or worse. He reached the end of the corridor after only a few minutes of walking, the corridor split into different directions with a lantern on the left. Stopping he put his back against the right wall and looked around the corner. The hallway to the left continued onwards, doors lining the far wall, further apart than the cells were. Turning his head Mike looked down the right hall. Mike froze, suppressing a scream of surprise and alarm that almost burst from his throat. This hall was significantly shorter and ended only about 5 metres long, but there was a door on the far wall and standing before it was an enormous creature. It looked like a Jaguar, kind of, it was probably two metres tall at the shoulder. Its fur was gold, not yellow or orange, and the spots lining it looked like holes in his vision. It appeared to be asleep. Lying its head down on its front legs with its back legs splayed out to one side and it¡¯s tail curled around it. His mana sight showed a golden aura around it, not that he knew what that meant. He would bet on the fact that his goal was behind that door. No, this wasn¡¯t a video game, as much as the AI wanted to make it seem like one. Who was he kidding, what he wanted was almost certainly behind that door, the jaguar creature was placed perfectly to guard both the cells and that room. He looked back down the right hall at the doors lining it. Perhaps he could sneak down that way to find something that could distract it? Could he use Magic? The only magic that he had unlocked was Light magic, and he had only managed to make two spells with it, Minor Illusion and Light orb. Minor Illusion might be useful, if the AI really was using it to make the windows then that meant it could make sound, but Mike had no idea how it could do that, he had worked out colour by feeling the AI cast the spell for the window, and had figured out how to create light through fumbling. He could just speak, he was kinda invisible right now, but he didn¡¯t want to bring attention to himself. Hell, casting anything right now probably required him to speak, or did it? The window said he required aids, but it was just to help him focus, could he do it with just motions? Mike took in a quavering breath he had an idea, it was a dumb one but it might work. He focused on his new sense, the help screen had said that Attunement was the stat that measured his ability to sense Mana, so was this that? He would call it his Attunement sense for now. The space around him was still covered in that diffuse, glowing white mana, when he wasn''t looking for it he seemed to just see past it. He used his new sense as he raised his pointer finger before his face sensing the mana as he tried to cast a spell similar to minor illusion, he pointed exaggeratedly at the ground right in front of the massive cat. The mana coalesced again under his control as he converted it to colour, this time however he didn''t form it into a static floating panel instead he wanted to make a beam come directly from his finger. A red dot the size of his fingertip appeared in front of the Jaguar, Mike made a soft sound of exclamation. The Jaguar''s eyes opened in response. They panned across the room, passing right over him, circling until they settled on the little red dot on the floor before its feet. It''s head raised from its paws and tilted in an oh so familiar manner. Chapter 6 - Level Up! For real! The jaguar moved its paw casually onto the red dot but the dot was now on the back of its paw, its head tilted the other way in confusion, then the dot moved to slide off its paw to about a metre in front of it. Mike grinned as the jaguar¡¯s eyes narrowed, then a growl started to come from the throat of the jaguar, and Mike froze, the bass of the growl deep enough that Mike could feel it from almost three meters away. Immediately pivoting his head to look down the other hall to see if anyone was coming in reaction to the noise. It was clear so far. He turned his head back to the more immediate threat, the jaguar had started to stand, moving smoothly into a crouching position, all of its legs folded beneath it and its torso low to the ground. He jerked his arm and the dot slid away from the huge cat, moving along the floor. The jaguar responded fast, almost faster than he could see, it blurred to the new position of the dot and Mike moved his hand again sliding the dot further down the hall, this time onto one of the walls, the jaguar moved again, though not as fast this time leaping forward to press its front paws over the red dot. Thinking that he should probably get moving, Mike started to take slow steps towards the door that the jaguar had been guarding. He moved backwards with one hand against the wall, his other hand still raised to direct the movement of the red dot as the jaguar continued to jump around the hallway, getting slowly further away. After a few moments of walking he reached the door, putting his back to the wall he inspected the door. It looked like an ordinary set of thick wooden double doors, two doorknobs at the centre. He couldn¡¯t see a keyhole anywhere, were they not locked? Glancing back down the hall he saw the jaguar still distracted by the random twitches of his hand directing the laser pointer. Looking back to the door he reached out with his free hand to firmly grip the doorknob. Before he could even turn it to see if it was locked he felt his field of vision go white. He staggered back, Blinded by what he thought must have been a flash of incredibly bright light. Then he felt something slam into the back of his shoulders and carry him to the ground on his front, pain running through him first from his back then the entire front of his body. He hadn¡¯t even had time to put his hands down to brace himself as he fell, given his current state though that may have just made it worse. Then he felt hot breath on the back of his had and he was too afraid to focus on the pain. His vision was finally starting to clear as he heard a new voice. ¡°Aaah, I see our guest has finally awoken from his extended rest.¡± Mike tried to turn his head to get a look at who had been spoken. As he did, however, he only saw what looked to be the top half of a set of huge needle-sharp teeth. So that''s where that breath was coming from. He felt as a tremor of terror ran through him as he imagined that huge golden cat crouched on his back and its huge mouth open to contain his skull between its jaws. He wasn¡¯t particularly surprised to start feeling a warm puddle forming under him. ¡°Back.¡± The voice commanded and the weight of the jaguar and its breath on his back vanished, as well as its teeth from his vision. Now standing less than a few feet from him. Looming over his pathetic form was a tall man in clean white robes, wrapped around him in an intricate fashion, embroidered in gold along seams and edges of cloth. As he looked up further to the man''s face he saw a stern expression looking down at him from eyes slitted like a reptile¡¯s, set in a face of golden skin, and framed by golden hair with two sharp-pointed ears. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have been able to escape that cell, I imagine you had the help of that Dark one. Well, nothing for it now. SLEEP.¡± The last word was accompanied by a shining wave of white mana emanating from the High Elf''s mouth that sent soothing and calming waves through Mike¡¯s mind. In less than a second, he was asleep. *** Mike awoke, blinking his eyes as if to clear them. He tried to understand what his senses were showing him, he was in a hard bed, laying on his back, a thin sheet the only thing between him and what felt like stone, he tried to think about what he was doing before he went to sleep¡­ The escape! Mike sat up, deja vu brushing over his mind. He looked down, once again seeing his thin and shirtless form. Looking around he knew he was in the same dark cell as before. He took a deep breath. He had failed. Even with the Magical assistance of an actual Elf, he had failed. He felt a shudder of fear run through him at the memory of the jaguar''s jaws stretched around his head. From what he knew about the creatures on Earth, they killed by simply crushing the skulls of their prey, instead of seeking a week spot. He kept his eyes tightly shut, he wouldn''t cry. He still needed to escape and sitting here crying about how badly he had fucked up the first time wasn''t going to get him anywhere. After sitting and just breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth for a few minutes, he opened his eyes. He needed to focus, the AI seemed to want to help, even if it also seemed drastically unstable and rather contradictory in its methods. It was something to focus on though, the system the AI gave him was a life raft of familiarity in this new world. He hadn''t been sent to a world that inexplicably ran on its own game system, but he had brought one with him it seemed. It would provide just as much detachment as he needed to cope without letting him forget the stakes, or so he hoped. He needed some light. He focused on the white mana around him and imagined the same ball of light that he had before. ¡°Lumen,¡± he spoke, and he saw the mana shift at the same time as felt it with his attunement sense. It seemed to not just change into colour but shift from that overlapped space that it existed in into the world as it transformed into the glowing orb. Still feeling the wonder of using magic, and glad that the High Elves hadn¡¯t done something to him that prevented it, he looked around the illuminated room. It was just as barren and boring as he remembered. He then looked down at his tattooed right arm, there was now a 6 in the circle next to the bell symbol. He lifted his left hand and tapped the Icon. There was a ding and a new window appeared.
1/2If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. You have unlocked Magic the Skills: Dark Magic Dark Magic Resistance Light Magic Resistance You have discovered the spell: Shadow Camouflage MagicaspectLevel up! You have gained 2 distributable Magic stats.
Magic Statistics 2
Level 2
Exp 10%
Affinity 16 (+/-)
Attunement 6 (+/-)
Control 7 (+/-)
Resistance 6 (+/-)
Next
Well at least he had gotten something out of that disaster, turns out getting turned partially invisible and magically put to sleep is a great way to gain experience in magic. He immediately put the points in control, not having to speak or wave his hands around to do magic would be great. It seemed as if that wasn¡¯t his only notification though. He hit Next and watched as the window changed.
2/2 Congratulations! You Have Leveled Up! Your Average Level is the sum of your total aspect Levels divided by three, It is a more accurate representation of your total capability than the total level. For Gaining an Average Level you receive: 2 General stat points that can be distributed into any stat. Spoiler: Status window
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 1
Physical Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 80%
Strength 8 (+/-)
Endurance 6 (+/-)
Agility 9 (+/-)
Dexterity 9 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 0
Level 0
Exp 65%
Intelligence 15 (+/-)
Wisdom 11 (+/-)
Perception 9 (+/-)
Willpower 7 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 0
Level 2
Exp 10%
Affinity 16 (+/-)
Attunement 6 (+/-)
Control 9 (+/-)
Resistance 6 (+/-)
General Points (GP) 2
Well, that was even more questions, it appeared he had actually Leveled up this time. He was buzzing with questions and wanted to spend those points immediately, but they weren¡¯t going anywhere, for the moment neither was he. He still needed to escape. He had royally fucked it up the first time, he should probably actually think about it for more than a few moments this time. He stood, first he needed to talk to Ishare to find out what had happened while he was asleep, and find out why they had let him wake up at all. Chapter 7 - Consequences Mike looked through the barred window in his door at Ishare, more specifically at Ishare¡¯s open mouth. He had asked simply asked what had happened since he had been caught? how much time had passed and why he was awake again. Ishare had only responded by opening his mouth wide enough for Mike to see inside. Which is why Mike was currently looking in horror at Ishare¡¯s lack of a tongue. He staggered back after only a few moments, tearing his eyes away from the empty mouth. What? Why? Was this the punishment for Ishare helping him try to escape? Mike looked down at his own body, finding it unhurt and unmarred, he was hyper-conscious of his tongue in his mouth. Had they punished him similarly somehow? In some way that he couldn¡¯t detect, or just hadn¡¯t noticed? He tried to think of ways they could have done so. Reaching up to feel his face, his mouth, eyes, nose and ears. All accounted for. His eyes widened as he quickly reached down for the waistband of his trousers. He let out a deep sigh of relief, all good down there too. He was distracted from his relief by the sound of ringing metal outside. Mike once again approached the window, looking through it at Ishare. Ishare¡¯s hand was raised with his knuckles out, obviously having rapped the bar. It crossed Mike¡¯s mind to wonder how hard he would have to tap solid iron to make it ring before he could continue that thought, Ishares hands started moving in an intricate pattern. ¡°Do not worry,¡± the motions of the hands meant. Mike blinked, he needed to look up the descriptions for his skills, the language skill seemed to be pulling its weight hard here. He focused as Ishare¡¯s hands started moving again. ¡°I do not believe this punishment is intended to be permanent, I believe it shall be restored once you leave, as my ability to speak is too important to be taken away so casually.¡± the gestures read. ¡°So they can heal you?¡± Mike asked, it seemed that Light magic was their thing, so that made sense. Well, it made sense in a video game, if someone asked him to use Light Magic to heal he wouldn¡¯t have the slightest idea how to go about it. Ishare nodded, his hands moving in those specific patterns again. ¡°It is good that you understand me, I believed you might, as you were speaking my language quite well before. You asked questions, I will answer them as best I can. ¡°It has not been long since they caught you, though such is hard to judge down here. Though as you can tell, much has happened, they were not pleased that you managed to escape your cell, they seem to value you quite highly, and that you got out scared them. ¡°They brought you back here after you had been.¡± For the first time, Mike didn¡¯t understand the meaning of a gesture, it felt like a hiccup in his mind as if he had been reading one language and suddenly it switched to a different language mid-sentence. Ishare continued, not noticing Mike¡¯s sudden confusion and the Skill seemed to understand what he was saying again. ¡°You were injured, large bruises on the backs of your shoulders, they took you into your cell and healed you I do believe, though I cannot say why. Then they tried once more to examine your mind but were once again thwarted by your companion. They were confused as the spell they used to put you to sleep was similar, and worked.¡± Reading hand signs like this was disorienting, Mike hadn¡¯t known any form of sign language on Earth and was having trouble adapting to trying to watch the movement of Ishare¡¯s hands and look at his face for expressions, so he felt like he was getting a truncated version of this, without Ishare¡¯s feelings. The fact that he never paused to breathe was exhausting too, Mike had to follow the movements and it felt like reading a run-on sentence. A pang of guilt hit Mike, Ishare only had to do this because he¡¯d had his tongue cut out, for trying to help him. Ishare continued to sign and Mike followed as best he could. ¡°I think they now believe that it only protects you while you are unconscious, it may be beneficial to learn how to assume such a state at will.¡± Ishare paused in his signing to look up at Mike.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Thanks for the tip, but I feel like protecting myself by putting myself entirely at their will is a bit of a double-edged sword,¡± Mike replied, he tried to notice himself speaking another language, but it didn¡¯t feel like he was, all his thoughts were in English, and the sounds he was hearing seemed like English, just off slightly, perhaps the AI was prioritising for him. Learn how your weird translation skill works after out of immediate danger of mind rape and experimentation. Mike nodded at Ishare to continue and he did so. ¡°After that they came to ask me how I was involved in your escape, I told them that I helped you out of your cell and distract the guardian, it seems they value the contents of that room quite a lot to have...¡± another sign that Mike couldn¡¯t understand, ¡°...so well.¡± He took a deep breath then, ¡°They punished me, which I would prefer not to go into more detail on. It does not bother me too much, even if they do not heal it themselves I can get the damage reversed at a temple in my homeland. This is not the only problem however I have been restricted further in my ability to cast, none of my mana can leave this cell now, they did not do so before as it was difficult and requires constant maintenance for me to not be able to break it, they thought me compliant.¡± At that Mike was able to see a sneer on the friendly man¡¯s face. No definitely not compliant. Mike furrowed his brow at that, thinking, how on¡­ well, not Earth, was he supposed to escape without Ishare¡¯s assistance, he couldn''t even get out of his cell without his help. Mike thought to the most recent set of notifications, Dark Magic. He needed to do some questioning of the AI again. Mike looked to Ishare, "If I could use dark magic myself, could you teach me what you did to the door?" He asked, face serious. The AI had said that humans on this planet couldn''t use magic, but Ishare seemed to think him capable of it. Ishare''s eyebrows rose, "Dark magic you say, I suspected you of being able to do some Light magic from what I felt from your cell before we first spoke," he signed. He tilted his head thinking, then started to sign again, "I imagine your method of using magic is vastly different, as you do not contain any internal mana, but if you can indeed use Dark magic I will teach you as best I can in these rather unideal circumstances, though I don''t know if we have the time, that is not a simple spell." He signed. Mike nodded, grateful. He didn''t know what these elves thought of magic and how it was treated by their society, but he could still be grateful for this one teaching him so he could save himself. "Thank you Ishare, I will be back soon, I need to ask some questions of my companion, I''m not entirely sure how all of this works myself, but I will work it out." He nodded to Ishare once more as he turned to walk back to the bed. He felt his legs strain from the simple effort of moving after standing still for so long. The ever-useful ¡®Ding¡¯ sounded as a new window appeared before him.
Physical aspect Level up! You have gained 2 Distributable Physical Stats.
Physical Statistics 2
Level 2
Exp 0%
Strength (STR) 8 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 6 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 9 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 9 (+/-)
Well, standing around chatting was training when you had the endurance of a 60-year-old. Chapter 8 - Skill System Mike put the two points into END. He thought about splitting them between AGI and DEX to round them out but decided against it. Running faster and being more accurate weren¡¯t huge factors for the moment, and none of his physical stats were useful if he could only use them for a few minutes. He made his way to his stone bed as sat down on the thin covering. He also still had the two General Points, though he felt less of a rush to spend those, there were more options and it felt they were meant for specialization If every Average Level was three aspect levels, then he would get 8 points per level, but only two of those points could go anywhere, so if he wanted one Statblock to have more points than the others, that¡¯s where he should be putting the GP. So he would save them until he knew which aspect that should be, or if he should be splitting them somehow. He had told Ishare that he was going to be talking to his ¡®Companion¡¯ and he would, as much as the AI could talk. ¡°Help screen, Skills,¡± he said and watched as a familiar and an unfamiliar window appeared beside each other.
Welcome to the Help screen, please ask a question. This service has been designated to answer any questions about your situation and abilities, answers are predetermined based on predicted terms of enquiry and not generated in real-time, this is not a conversation.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ?? 2
N/A
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Amateur 10
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 1
Light Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 2
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
This way he could ask the questions he had as he thought of them if he needed a third window he would need to open it himself, which would be practising. At first glance, he wasn¡¯t particularly impressed at the levels of his Skills, except Language, he supposed being fluent in a single language meant he wasn¡¯t an ¡®Amateur¡¯ at language in general. He looked over the skills window and those questions immediately started rising, but first, he would ask something that had been bothering him. ¡°Can other people see these windows?¡± he asked.
These windows are created using the highest level Illusion spell that you currently have access to at the lowest levels, this means that they will be visible to all, to change this, learn the minor illusion spell and study its properties. If the AI senses others within the vicinity to perceive these windows, then it shall store them as notifications to be viewed later with a command of ¡°Notifications.¡± If you wish to use the windows in another''s presence you will need to cast the underlying illusion spell yourself.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
That was a yes. So the windows could be seen by everyone until he could manage to cast an illusion spell that only he could see, which he had no idea how to do, so he probably shouldn¡¯t dwell on it too much, now to the questions about his skill window. He should probably start with the basics, ¡°What are Skills?¡± he asked it
Skills are training programs. They are subsystems created by the AI to teach you valuable skills that will aid in your survival and the pursuit of your goals, they are inserted into the background functions of you Mind, Body and Soul to aid your training in their specific Skill. Some Skills will have Statistic requirements, this is done to make sure that you can practice the Skill safely. Such as the Skill Unarmed combat which has a Strength requirement of 8 and an Endurance requirement of 10, to protect your body from the strain that the Skill will put on it. Each Skill has 7 distinct Mastery levels: Amateur, Novice, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster, Legend, and Godlike. Each mastery level consists of 10 Skill levels. Achieving a higher mastery level in a skill will broaden its capabilities and heighten its requirements. The AI will not always be prepared to raise the mastery level of a Skill, as it lacks the knowledge and technique to extrapolate what the next level of mastery looks like, this will require you to complete an Advancement Quest in order to help the AI gain a sufficient understanding of the Skill in order for it to advance. Encountering or attempting a new Skill that the AI does not understand will give you an unlock quest, that will guide you to the knowledge the AI needs to teach that Skill. Magic Skills are special. They allow you to use spells from their specific Element, without the corresponding Elemental magic skill equipped you will not be able to cast spells of that element until the Skill has reached at least a one mastery level higher than the level of that spell. You will only ever be able to cast spells at most one mastery level higher than your current mastery level. Skills exist to aid your training and will not train you on their own, you will need to both have a skill equipped and be using that Skill actively if you wish for it to progress.
So, Skills were magical programs that helped him get better at stuff, neat. They seemed pretty broad, considering there was an ¡®Unarmed combat¡¯ skill, instead of separate skills to teach him Taekwondo, Karate and Judo individually. He felt like he should probably be worried about the AI messing with the background functions of his Brain and Soul, but that was honestly no more alarming than the existence of the AI in general. Next on his growing list of questions about skills, ¡°What do the Skill Slots row and Equipped Column mean?¡±
You cannot train with all of your Skills simultaneously, as your Body, Mind and Soul do not contain the capacity to contain the programming of all of them. Due to this limitation, you have Skill Slots. These skill slots measure your capacity to contain skills in each of the three aspects, starting with 2 in each block. You will gain a new Skill Slot every 5 levels in each aspect, indicating the growth of your capacity to contain Skills. You can change the currently equipped skills by opening the skills window and moving the Equipped markers ¡®?¡¯. Upon closing the window you will experience a moment of disorientation as the skills are exchanged, thus it is not recommended to do this in a high-stress situation. Once a skill is Equipped it will be able to train you as intended. Not having a skill Equipped does not mean you cannot use the associated skill of the program, as the point of Skills is to raise your mastery of those skills and that does not change when the skill is unequipped, if you make progress in a skill without it being Equipped, it will update upon being Re-Equipped.
Now that he knew the general application and information about Skills, He should probably start seeing what they did more specifically. He thought about it, then simply said to the Help Screen, ¡°Mana Sight, Light magic, Dark magic and Language Skill descriptions.¡±
Skills Governing Stats Mastery Max. Mastery Description
Mana sight ATU PER Amateur Journeyman Mana Sight allows you to see mana in it''s Between state and Mana that has leaked through to the Mortal Realm. The Between Mana that you see with this skill does not entirely exist in the Mortal Realm, but rather between the mortal realm and the Spirit Realm. This mana is drawn to it''s like in the physical realm, Fire mana to fire and heat, Water mana to water and cold, Wood mana to plants and growth. This between mana can be accessed by your Magic Skills. Some mana, however, does exist in the Mortal Realm such as the Mana in the blood of the Elven Races, crossed over Spirits, and Mana affected Beasts. Equipping this Skill allows for the sight of mana in its various forms, it can be toggled on and off subconsciously and will never Impede actual vision, this skill requires the use of your eyes, if they are closed, damaged, or lost you will not be able to perceive mana in this way. This Skill will passively guide your understanding of mana, its movements and nature as you use it.
Light magic AFI CON Amateur Journeyman Light Magic is the manipulation of Light mana into Magical Phenomenon, spells. At the Amateur Levels, Light magic can be used to create illusions of colour, Sound and forms of illumination. Equipping this Skill enables you to sense Light mana and to use it to cast spells of its current mastery level and one higher and will passively guide you towards a deeper understanding of Light mana and magic.
Dark magic AFI CON Amateur Novice Dark magic is the manipulation of Dark mana into Magical Phenomenon, spells. At amateur levels, Dark Magic can be used to conceal objects and Divert attention, as well as cause the Illusion of pain and other physical sensations on contact. Equipping this Skill enables you to sense Dark mana and to use it to cast spells of its current mastery level and one higher and will passively guide you towards a deeper understanding of Dark mana and magic.
Language INT WIS Novice Novice The language skill allows you to speak a language with the same skill as your native language, provided you have had adequate exposure to that language. Spending a week around native speakers is enough to learn how to speak a language as if it was English. At novice, this applies to abstract forms of communication-based on the Languages that you have acclimated too, such as sign language. Equipping this Skill allows you to converse in Acclimated languages as if they were English. To Acclimate to new languages speak to someone who understands an already acclimated language and have them respond in the language you wish to Acclimate to, this will help the AI gather context to the meanings of words and their expected responses and meanings in English. Acclimated Languages: High Elvish / Gildaic Dark Elvish / Parosi
Mike read through the descriptions, it was nice to finally know what these did. He would need to go over the descriptions for all his skills, but for now, he wanted to learn Magic. He looked over to the Skills Window and moved the tick on the Light Magic skill over to the Dark Magic skill. Chapter 9 - Dark Magic Mike felt the shift immediately as he closed the window, all of his senses suddenly dimmed and he felt like he couldn¡¯t move even if he wanted too, then it was over, everything was back to normal. Well kind of, ever since Light magic had been enabled he had been able to feel the light mana at the edge of his senses, likely his Attunement sense being attuned by the skill to help him use Light Magic. Now he couldn¡¯t feel it, there was something different at the edge of his senses now, it wasn¡¯t nearly as omnipresent as the previous feeling had been. The room was still relatively well lit by the Light orb that he had cast upon waking up, though it was dimming. That was good to know, that his spells persisted past his ability to cast spells of their element. A thought occurred to him that probably should have occurred to him sooner, he looked at the help panel, also still there despite his inability to cast Light Magic, ¡°Why don¡¯t I have a mana bar? Or a health bar? Or any bars at all?¡±
You may have noticed that you lack the titular ¡®Resource bars¡¯ often used in RPG games, this may seem odd considering how the AI has done its best to recreate the experience of an RPG for your interfaces with it. This is intentional, the AI felt that it was not prudent to include these bars in a real-world environment especially the Health bar. The AI concluded that having Resource bars would make you see their contents as resources to be spent in order to achieve goals, this is a poor way to view your Health and Stamina, if you are careful and smart you should be trying at all costs to avoid losing any of either, and although quantifying them for you to view would be within the AI¡¯s capabilities, it concluded that doing so would lead you to unnecessarily risk yourself, simply because you weren¡¯t ¡®out of Health¡¯. This is not how the human body works and thinking so would be Dangerous. This though, is not why you do not have a mana bar. You do not have a mana bar simply because your body does not contain any mana that can be used to cast spells. This is because you are human and is why most in the mortal realm believe that humans are incapable of casting spells at all. All of the variations of Elves have mana that exists in their blood, Dark mana for Dark Elves and Light mana for High Elves, this mana exists within the mortal realm and is connected directly to their soul, as all of the body is, allowing them to use it to cast spells of those elements. This means that there is no resource for it to measure. You will need to work around this deficit or find a way to change it, for now, you can use the tattoo to access the mana that exists between the Realms. More info in Skill: Mana sight.
After that brief but informative distraction, he turned his attention back to his attunement sense. He looked to the corners of his cell where he could see the pools of Dark gathered as if compacted there by the Light mana that he could still see filling the room. He could feel it now, the pooled Darkness, it felt empty and hollow, but also beneath really noticing, like one ignored the non-illuminated parts of a room, mostly because there was nothing there of interest. He shuffled to the end of his stone slab of a bed and looked at the corner directly across from him its end. The Dark mana was there, but it felt entirely different to how he sensed the Light mana. Light mana had felt like thinking about the scientific facts he knew about what light was, about light rays, reflections and colour. But Dark mana didn¡¯t feel like any of that, in fact, the difference was so blatant that it might as well be an intentional absence. Absence¡­ That¡¯s what Darkness was, wasn¡¯t it? On Earth all darkness was considered to be was the absence of light, merely a spot that light rays didn¡¯t reach in great enough intensity to illuminate. That was different here. The Dark mana existed but seemed to be giving him an almost intentionally opposite feeling to the Light mana. Were they opposites then, were his senses trying to communicate that to him? That Dark mana and light mana were opposites? He wasn¡¯t sure. What sort of spell could he cast with Dark mana then? Didn¡¯t he unlock one when Ishare had cast it on him? ¡°Spells,¡± he said into the air.
Spells Mastery Level Requirements Cast Time Duration Description
Light orb Amateur Light Magic - Amateur Instantaneous 1 hour Create an orb of Light that Illuminates the surroundings, gives clear light up to 10 metres.
Minor illusion AmateurThis tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Light Magic - Amateur Instantaneous 1 hour Creates an illusion formed of Light mana converted to colour, this illusion can be no more than a metre in size and remains stationary. Illusions can also be sources of light that project out from a fixed point or can be attached to moving objects, such as your body.
Shadow camouflage Amateur Dark Magic - Amateur 10 seconds of concentration. 10 minutes Blends your image into the shadows, making you more difficult to perceive while in darkness, at higher levels of mastery can completely replace your physical image with that of a shadow.
In both the descriptions for Dark magic and Light Magic, the AI had mentioned illusions, he could see how Light magic could be related to illusions, the bending of light to create images was a common enough trope for illusion magic on Earth, but that isn¡¯t what he had done when creating Illusions. He had been affecting the Light mana, not the physical light, even now the illusions that existed, although they appeared physical were mere just mana, what had the AI called them? Magical Phenomenon. So Illusions worked differently in this world than what popular fiction would have him believe, they were just blobs of mana given shape, the AI was certainly better at them than he was, its windows were more complex than any illusion he had managed to create. What it had said about Dark mana Illusions, ¡°Illusions of Pain and other physical sensations,¡± he quoted from memory. That sounded familiar, he remembered feeling that pain whenever he thought the word ¡°game¡± right after he woke up, it had worn off but it wasn¡¯t the kind of experience you forget, which was almost certainly deliberate. ¡°Help Screen, how did the tattoo cause me to feel pain without harming me right after I woke up,¡± He asked the window as it appeared.
The pain you experienced from the Tattoo on your right arm was not real, it was Simulated with Magic, The AI concluded that if you were not given immediate negative reinforcement, you would continue to treat this experience as a Game or at the very least with less seriousness than was warranted. To achieve this, a built-in function of the tattoo designed to deliver notifications while using the illusory windows would give away the tattoos true nature and capabilities, casting the spell Sensory Illusion, to make you experience illusory pain from the tattoo upon thinking of the world as a game or thinking about risking your life in some way due to that assumption.
After he finished reading, Mike wondered whether he was meant to read this message earlier, it seemed to explain some things that some of the other windows already had. It made sense that the AI had built in the answers to his situation in the answers to multiple of the predicted questions he may ask, as it couldn¡¯t know what he would ask the Help screen upon waking, no matter how well it understood him. The answer he was looking for was in there though, just like the AI had dropped the Minor Illusion spell name in its explanation for the windows, it had dropped the spell name here too, Sensory Illusion. The tattoo had been made using Dark magic and Light magic at its core, as it had been made by the High elves in collaboration with Ishare. Even if whatever the AI had become was completely different, it made sense that it had access to those two mana types to cast spells. So it had used the Light mana to cast flashy eye-catching Illusions that informed him of his situation in a way he could understand. While it used the Dark mana to cast circumspect and subtle Illusions that only he could feel to notify him while it was hiding. That felt intentional like the AI was trying to guide him to think about Light magic and Dark Magic in two specific ways. As he thought he heard the telltale ding of a notification.
Mental aspect Level up! You have gained 2 Distributable Mental Stats.
Mental Statistics 2
Level 1
Exp 5%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 11 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 9 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 7 (+/-)
Well, It seemed the AI approved of his use of logic, well no, from what it had told him the levelling up happened when he stretched his abilities to their limits. He didn¡¯t know what the actual process of granting him stats involved, he would wait to spend these for now. Back to his original objective. Dark Magic was much subtler than light magic it seemed, so simply forcing it to become something that he understood it to already represent as he had with light magic, he felt like he should give it an objective and see how it responded. He reached out from the end of his bed, putting the tips of his fingers in the compacted Dark mana in the corner of the room, thinking of some kind of phrase that would help him focus his control and once again focused on his terrible understanding of Latin, ¡°Sensulae Illusion,¡± he said, trying to make it a request this time, instead of a grandiose command. A request to make him feel something on his fingertips. He felt the Dark mana shift, what he now understood to be it shifting into the mortal realm, and his fingertips suddenly felt cold, like his hand was touching ice instead of empty air, he jerked his hand back but the sensation remained. Ding.
You have discovered the spell: Sensory Illusion
Mike shook his fingers willing the cold feeling to go away as he had the windows when he didn¡¯t want them, this time it worked, the cold feeling fading away. With it gone his fingers didn¡¯t feel any different. No stiffness or cramping from the cold they had just experienced, on the other hand, Mike thought he understood what his Willpower of seven meant for him a little better, the second the unpleasant feeling had started he could only think about making it stop. Not dwelling on that, he looked to the new notification, a small smile starting to form, looks like he should talk to Ishare again. Chapter 10 - Magic Lesson On his way over to the door, Mike thought about what he should do with the two free mental points. The obvious thing was to put them in willpower, to raise his mental resistance to negative effects and emotions. He reckoned someone with a high enough willpower could have just flat out resisted that sleep spell that hit him earlier. It didn¡¯t seem to magically inflict sleep on him as much as put his mind in the perfect state to fall asleep and his low willpower was why he was only working that out now, instead of as the spell hit him. He put it aside as he reached the door, leaning against it as he looked through the window. For the first time, Ishare was standing. He was staring intently through the bars of his cell straight at Mike. He was taller than Mike had expected, taller than Mike himself, though that wasn¡¯t a particular achievement. His shoulders seemed broader while standing, it seemed possible that his current thinness wasn¡¯t his natural state, but due to malnutrition, much like Mike¡¯s own. Ishare¡¯s hands started to flash in the sign gestures again, ¡°You were not mistaken then, you can use Dark magic after all?¡± he asked in his sign language. Ishare had done a lot for Mike from what he could tell, he had helped the AI understand it¡¯s situation while he was in a coma, he had hidden what he understood of the AI from the high elves and he had been severely punished for helping Mike try to escape, only for Mike to fuck it up. ¡°Yes I can, though I think it is in a very different method to what you do,¡± Mike said, not knowing how to explain the AI and the mana he was using, he should get context from Ishare before he tried to explain it. The elf grinned, barring bright white teeth, ¡°Oh I do imagine it is, unless you are a much better Illusionist than I, and are a Dark elf, I cannot imagine you using the same methods as I do.¡± The elf paused seemingly thinking for a few moments. ¡°I shall teach you what I know of magic and its history in general first, then I shall tell you of the method I used help you escape your cell, though if you truly can use Light magic also I may have another solution. One that could potentially free both of us. For now the lesson." The man''s hands stopped moving as he took a deep breath, a peace coming over his expression. They started moving a tad more slowly than before, as if there was a cadence to his movements, "Before there were gods, there was no magic. Three thousand years ago, the gods came, and with them came Elves. Each god formed a race of elves from the Mortal realm to serve them here, as coming here themselves would put them at risk, though others may say that it was for different purposes.¡± ¡°With the god of Soul and Knowledge, Light, came the High Elves, in the shape of humans with Golden skin and eyes, crafted from the Light of the mortal realm and granted dominance over it. With the god of Law and Retribution, Judgement, came the Mountain Elves, stouter than humans and with bones of stone and more commonly called Dwarves. Their bones crafted from the stone of the earth and their flesh from the molten blood of the land, they were thus given power over Earth and Fire. Lastly, the god of Darkness and Chaos, Pain, formed the Dark Elves from the shadows under the earth, of course granting us power over them.¡± As his hands moved they trailed Darkness, the shadows shifting into detailed forms, A tall figure in regal robes and a slightly shorter feminine figure in a slim dress, with what appeared to be straight and sharp horns protruding from her temples and backwards as he described the High elves. A stout figure in armor formed of slabs of stone and a shorter but slimmer figure in a robe with fire hovering above an outstretched hand as he described the Dwarves, and lastly a narrow figure, that looked much like Ishare himself, and an even narrower counterpart, clad in leathers as he described the Dark Elves, all were made of pitch blackness, but detailed enough in the light of the orbs for Mike to distinguish that they all had ears that came to sharp points. ¡°The Elves were not numerous in the beginning, but they had an advantage over Humans, Magic, they could mould the elements from which they were formed into powers that changed the world. The mana that exists in our veins is the source of those powers, a remnant from the elements that gave us form. ¡°Each individual interacts with their mana differently, though the ways tend to form into Archetypes,¡± as Ishare signed this, the male High elf figure began to step forward from the row. ¡°There are those who believe that magic is a gift of their god, and believe that their magic should be handled by that god. They leave the control and purpose of their magic to their Deity. They are also granted access to the divine powers of their deity, depending on their ranking and devotion to them.¡± The male High elf figure knelt, looking upward and raising one hand to the sky while pressing one to his chest in a fist, a position of worship Mike assumed.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Some rare few believe that the origin of all mana is the Spirit realm, and believe that spirits weak and strong, are most suited to control it. So they seek out a spirit in this realm or make the perilous journey to theirs. They find a spirit and bind it to their mana, allowing it to shape and form their spells for them. Be it as Familiar or Patron, they often grant access to another type of mana to the caster.¡± The High elf female stepped forward this time, from behind her rose a dark serpent, sliding through the air as if it was water and wrapping itself around her arm as she rose it. "Others find that the mana is a part of their body and control and strengthen it along with their body, they gain strength and skill, their lethality and diversity in close combat undeniable." The stone-clad Dwarven male stepped forward, lifting a giant mace from his back, obviously also made of stone, he swung it from over his shoulder and stopped it dead in front of him, drawing it back for another swing. "Some seek to understand the mundane form of their Mana''s element, immersing themselves in it to gain enlightenment. They use this understanding to shape and control the mana." The Dwarven female stepped forward and the dark fire in her palm spread over her body until she was entirely obscured, then retracted, forming into a ball of flame in her other palm. ¡°Some find a much more concrete understanding of their mana, they experiment and study, calculating their abilities and understanding the effects of their mana on the world. They create runes defining the aspects of their magic, then combine those runes to form more complex and powerful spells.¡± This time the male Dark Elf stepped forward and sat down, holding his hands before him as shadow streamed from his fingers, recreating the scene of Ishare Casting a spell to make the door incorporeal. ¡°Last but not least there are those that are simply so talented at shaping mana that it comes to them instinctively, coming to their fingers at their whim and forming along with their imagination, They are natural magic users, however, their magic tends to be heavily bound to their state of mind, making them emotional and erratic based on the nature of their element.¡± Lastly the female dark elf stepped forward to join the others, her head drooped forward and smoke started to leak from her eyes, shadowy smoke started to rise from her hands as she slowly lifted her head, shadows obscuring it in a mask that seemed to be screaming in pain, smoke-like shadow trailing up from its edges. Mike watched in silence as Ishare made the display, eyes flicking between Ishare¡¯s more deliberate hand motions and the animated figures of shadow. He had questions, such as the whole ¡®god of Darkness and Chaos¡± thing, which was definitely concerning, but he didn¡¯t know the social relation between the Dark elves and their apparent creator, Mike had decided long ago to not judge people based entirely on their beliefs. Ishare had yet to do him wrong and had put himself in danger to help him, he deserved the benefit of the doubt. ¡°These are long paths that most magic users choose early in their journey, thinking on them now would likely be of benefit to you, though some are unlikely to suit you in your unique circumstance.¡± Ishare paused his hands and then waved his hand through the animated figures, they dispersed into a cloud of fog that reformed into a larger version of him casting the spell that had previously been present. ¡°The reason I find it unlikely for you to be able to cast this spell is that it is a spell that I have crafted using the runes that I have made over decades of study. You can do something similar at a beginner level, but it would likely not last long enough for you to pass through or would simply fail, or create a door of Dark mana into the spirit realm that a spirit could wander through. I¡¯m sure that those are not things that you wish. ¡°What I am doing when I cast it is mixing my runes for Impermeability, Shadow, Object and a timer, each of which is crafted carefully. If you think you can do this, or that your method of magic is different in such a way as to not need these steps, then I shall explain how this can be achieved without them, or at least a lesser version of the effect with similar results.¡± as he explained the shapes that composed the spell in front of Ishare¡¯s model pulsed, denoting each rune as he spoke them. Ishare paused, looking to Mike for input. Mike was thinking, it seemed he had been overreaching significantly in wanting to do the same thing as Ishare while having only had magic for less than 6 hours by his conscious experience, he frowned, then how was he supposed to get out of here? Ishare had said that he had a plan, his plans so far had been much better than Mike¡¯s, he should probably hear it out. Mike shook his head, then stopped, wondering if thatwould mean the same thing in this world, ¡°No,¡± he clarified, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can, and those consequences for failure certainly make me hesitant to try. You said you had a plan that could free both of us?¡± Ishare grinned again, holding the expression as he signed, ¡°Yes, this time you shall help me escape my cell.¡± Chapter 11 - Plan Mike¡¯s eyebrow rose in curious scepticism in response to the statement, ¡°And how am I going to do that?¡± he asked. ¡°I told you before that the reason I can no longer aid you is because there were soul wards on my cell are stopping my Magic from exiting? When they added to them to restrict my Magic they needed to add Light Magic to them. It opposes my Magic, as they are opposites but the opposition isn¡¯t perfect, I can oppose it back, degrading the barrier over time. I can break it but they will return and renew it before then as they know how long it will take for the barrier to degrade. With your help though, using Light Magic to influence the barrier, we can break it much faster, especially as I already know the weak points for you to exploit.¡± As Ishare finished signing he reached out to the still animated Darkness before him, the image dissolved and seeped back into his hand and arm like smoke, leaving only a few wisps behind. No, they weren¡¯t left behind. as Mike focused on the wisps of dark mana he realised he could sense them, he hadn¡¯t been able to sense the spell or the mana that Ishare had used to cast it, he could see it, but not sense it. Before he could figure out what was going on, Ishare began signing again. ¡°This time, after you distract the Guardian, I will find the weak points in the door''s ward and then we can break it together and get out of here.¡± He finished. Mike grinned back at the Dark elf now. ¡°That sounds like a much better plan than last time, just let me make a bit of a change,¡± Mike stepped to the side of the door and said softly, ¡°Skills.¡±
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ?? 2
N/A
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Amateur 10
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 1
Light Magic AFI/CON Amateur 2
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI AmateurThis story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. 1
Dark Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 1
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Mike put a hand against the wall to brace himself as he used the other hand to move the tick mark for Dark Magic over to Light Magic. He experienced the same frozen instant before he came to and could feel the Light mana all around him once more. Mike thought for a second and decided that he should probably use those two mental points now as well, opened his status and put them into willpower, that stat was abysmally low. He dismissed the screens with a swipe of his hand and walked back to the door, looking out at Ishare and nodding to him, ¡°Ready.¡± Ishare nodded back, so that did mean the same thing here or at least something similar. Ishare started to sign, ¡°I will begin, follow the flow of my Magic and try to interfere with the wards at the same places when you sense them.¡± A shape appeared before Ishare, formed from Dark mana, what Mike now knew to be a rune. Tendrils of shadow mana shot out of it in straight lines towards seemingly random places on the bars, seven of them, and at those seven places, a shimmering surface became visible, being distorted by the lines of Dark Magic. Mike focused, sensing the light mana at the weak point nearest him. Nothing. He could sense the mana sure, that vague sense of light, colour and reflection as he understood them, but the spell that he was supposed to be interfering with wasn¡¯t there. He glanced to Ishare, ¡°I can¡¯t sense it, what am I supposed to do?¡± Ishare looked to him and signed, ¡°to sense others spells you must contact them with a spell of your own or with mana under your control, I am very curious to see you this.¡± Mike nodded then once again reached out with his senses, but this time he tried to control the mana at the weak point, thinking of making it his, grasping it and moving it as his will. As he looked at the mana he was controlling through mana sight he saw it shift, feeling it as well, but this time not into a spell, it simply shifted into the mortal realm as the mana had every time he cast a spell, but with no shape this time just raw energy. Raw Light mana was bright, Mike had to squint at it, this mana was his now though, he could feel it much clearer now, it was light in its rawest form, illumination, colour, but it was part of him now as well, he could sense it resonating with him in ways he couldn¡¯t explain. He could also feel the ward now, not just the weak point that his Light mana was touching but the whole thing, it was a smooth pane of Light mana interwoven with something else, formed into a barrier across the front of the cell that repelled. it didn¡¯t repel light, though Mike suspected it could. it repelled its opposite, Dark, and an aspect of Light mana that Mike hadn¡¯t come into contact with, though the AI seemed to use often, Sound. Why would the High elves ward sound when they had cut out Ishare¡¯s tongue? So Ishare couldn¡¯t hear him? But Ishare had been able to hear him, right? Mike realised that the mana under his control was weakening, it wasn¡¯t meant to be in the Mortal Realm, and the reason it was glowing so bright is that it was unformed and was converting into its most natural physical state, rays of light. It was decaying in another way, a way that Mike didn¡¯t understand. He needed to break the ward now. He couldn''t feel the weak points in the ward, the whole thing felt uniform to him, but the lines of Dark magic that contacted it were interfering with it. They were decaying it in a similar way to how Mikes mana was decaying, the ward was only made of limited mana so could only block so much, but it had been made to block this mana so the rate that it was decaying at was incredibly slow. Not all the points were draining it at the same rate either, two of them were much less efficient than the others. Examples, Mike understood, those two were there too show him how the ward normally reacted to Dark Magic. Mike focused on the actual weak points and tried to sense the difference between them and normal reaction. There were flaws in the pane, gaps that weren¡¯t formed as solidly as the rest of it, they leaked light mana, Mike suspected that these flaws were actually intentional and that without them the ward would be permanent, but as the ward didn¡¯t have enough mana to function indefinitely, trying to make it so would just make it fail, so these flaws leaked mana. Now knowing what to do Mike spread his light mana into one of the flaws and shoved, it wasn¡¯t made to accept light mana, so it was like shoving together the negative ends of two magnets, they repelled. The ward shattered, not just metaphorically, there was the sound of breaking glass as the ward broke into a million pieces. Doing that had used up all of the Light mana that Mike had controlled. Mike felt the sensation of a notification from his arm and he wanted to know what the benefits of that experience, it was by far the most magical thing he had experienced so far. Not worrying about whether Ishare saw Mike said, ¡°Notifications,¡± and willed the Light mana before him to turn into the Window.
You have Discovered the Spells:
Spells Mastery Level Level Requirements Cast Time Duration Description
Counterspell Amateur 1 A Magic skill Instantaneous N/A Counterspell is not as much a spell as a technique to manipulate mana to breakdown an opposing spell, this is best done with the same element as that spell or one that counters that element naturally.
Light Ward Journeyman 1 Light Magic - Novice 10 minutes of concentration. 1 hour Create a transparent pane of light mana that repels specific aspects of light mana or types of mana in Opposition to it.
Nice! Two new spells, one for breaking the ward, and one for understanding what it did. Mike dismissed the screen and looked back too Ishare. He smiled as he saw Ishare cast the same spell as he had first done, The spell formed of runes spread out this time in a wave and enveloped them as it had his door. Ishare stepped through them as if they weren¡¯t there, he reached back and touched the shadowy bars and they recondensed into the same rune that shot at his door this time, once again enveloping it and turning it into a shadow in the doorway. Mike stepped through, ¡°Another try, I hope it goes better this time,¡± he said smiling at Ishare. Ishare just nodded and started to walk towards the end of the Hall. Chapter 12 - Escape, Second attempt As he walked, Mike felt Ishare put a hand on his shoulder, then the feeling of the Shadow camouflage spell enveloping him. He looked to Ishare but the dark-skinned man didn¡¯t cast the same spell over himself, though he did seem to blend rather seamlessly into the shadows anyway, perhaps a different spell? Ishare started signing as soon as he removed his hand from Mike''s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m curious how you managed to distract the guardian last time, the Gilded ones were certainly baffled as to how it was done and were readily willing to accept that it was something I had done to aid you.¡± Mike almost winced at the mention of his previous clumsy attempt at escape, he then tried to think about replying in sign language, he hadn''t in his cell because the door had covered everything but his face for Ishare. He started to raise his hands with the intent of doing so, but nothing happened, seems the language skill didn¡¯t help with performing sign language, only reading it. He whispered instead, ¡°It was a pretty cheap trick, I don¡¯t know if it will work again, the Guardian may have learned from its previous mistake.¡± ¡°No need to worry about that, the poor creature is under so much mental influence that I imagine it has little enough autonomy to eat and drink, but the Gilded ones can only condition it against instincts that they know of. Please distract it long enough for me to find the weak points on this ward as well.¡± Ishare signed in response. Mike nodded as they reached the end of the hall and Mike poked his head around the corner to see the same golden jaguar curled up in the light of the orb. So following Ishare¡¯s instruction he put out his hand and made the same grandiose gesture, ordering the Light mana in the between (He had to think of a better name for that) to coalesce on his fingertip and shine out in a ray as it had before. It worked just as it had then, the red dot the size of his fingertip appearing on the ground before the jaguar. In an eerily similar manner to before the jaguar¡¯s eyes opened and panned the room, passing over himself and Ishare as if they weren¡¯t there, then settling on the dot, Its head rose and tilted once again, in the same motion as last time. Mike glanced to Ishare as he flicked the dot just out of the jaguar¡¯s reach and heard the cat''s paw slap the stone where it had been, Ishare had his head tilted back and was silently laughing, his eyes slightly lidded in mirth but still fixed on the creature as Mike began to slowly lead it down the hall with quick movements of the laser pointer. Ishare calmed down from his pantomimed laughter after the jaguar had pounced past them on its merry chase, he ghosted silently past Mike towards the door. Mike followed him walking backwards and keeping his eyes on the jaguar, he glanced back once they had reached it and saw that Ishare was pouring Dark mana out of his fingertips and coating the door in a layer of it, seemingly intently studying the ward¡¯s reaction. Mike continued to jerk the dot around for a few minutes, long enough for his wrist to actually getting tired his eight whole endurance was reaching its limits, apparently. As he was thinking this he felt Ishare tap him on the shoulder, glancing back at the Dark elf he saw that once again there was a rune in front Ishare that was emitting lines of darkness to disrupt the ward, Mike glanced down the hall at the Jaguar and lead it down as far as he could before turning the laser pointer off, leaving the big cat looking around in confusion. Moving up to the door, Mike looked it over then spoke to Ishare in a whisper, ¡°last time I did this it was kinda flashy if I can you block the light from being seen down the hall?¡± Ishare nodded and waved backwards, Dark mana pouring from his hand and creating a shadowy curtain between them and the rest of the hall. How much mana did the Dark elf have? He had been pouring it out non stop, Mike could barely control enough to cast the light orbs and illusions, how much was Ishare putting into each spell he had seen him cast so far? Focusing back on the task Mike reached out with his attunement and control as once again, feeling for the Light mana, he grasped the mana nearest one of the weak points and pulled it through to the Mortal realm under his control as he had before, he immediately sensed both the ward and Ishare¡¯s spell. The ward felt similar to the last, it was a pane of transparent light mana in front of the door, this one was more densely interwoven with something else that wasn¡¯t quite mana, it must have been interacting with it more deeply this time, because this ward didn¡¯t have a repelling function, it was more of an alarm, if something crossed the ward that wasn¡¯t supposed too, it would set off that bright flash of light, that was all that the Light Magic portion of the ward did though, the rest of the details were handled by the other portion that he couldn¡¯t understand. Ishare¡¯s spell was entirely different, he could sense it unlike the strange portions of the ward but it was so different as to be incomprehensible, was it because he didn¡¯t have Dark Magic equipped? Not dawdling any longer though, Mike found one of the weak points of the ward with his mana. It was being disrupted by Ishare¡¯s spell just like the last one. He shoved his Light mana into it and felt the ward shatter much as the last one had, absorbing all of the Light mana under his control in the process. As the sound of shattering glass faded Mike felt the tattoo alerting him of a notification. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if that was a Magic aspect level up, and that would be his sixth total level too, so an Average Level as well. He didn¡¯t have time for that now as Ishare had stepped forward and started to push open the doors.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. As the doors swung inwards Mike peeked between to see what this item that would get them out of here looked like. Before he could see anything though there was the sound of a fucking gong being struck, he could have sworn he felt the ground shake it was so loud. ¡°What the fuck!¡± he shouted in surprise and alarm as his hands shot to his ears to protect them from the near-deafening sound. Ishare had made a similar motion, after a second of standing there with their ears covered, Ishare moved his hands down to continue to push open the door, more urgency in his motion now. Mike entered the room hot on Ishare¡¯s heels. It was a large square room with a few very interesting contents, the most immediately eye-catching of them being something huge that was covered in what looked like a huge curtain. To the right side of the room was the next most interesting thing, a two-metre wide bronze gong, it didn¡¯t look nearly big enough to have produced the sound they had heard, but the hammer that was resting against its centre and the ropes and pulleys connecting it to the open door was highly suggestive of what had happened. Ishare sighed, looking to Mike and signing, ¡°A non-magical alarm was not expected, we must hurry, I imagine this is the object that will facilitate the exit?¡± He pointed at the huge covered object. Mike didn¡¯t know, He approached the object and grabbed a handful of thick fabric that had been used to cover it and pulled, it took a few steps backwards before he had pulled the cover entirely off the monolith. He looked up and examined it. It looked like a huge chunk of shattered glass, though that didn¡¯t even touch on its oddity, it looked like a flat surface, but it had appeared at least vaguely conical while it had been covered, Mike could see the entire room reflected in it, he could clearly see himself, despite knowing that he was still covered in the Shadow Camouflage. the other wall was lined with tables, covered in implements and devices that Mike didn¡¯t recognize, except for... ¡°Wait,¡± Mike said. He looked past the huge chunk of reflective glass and saw on one of the tables to the side of the room was a pile of clothing. Mike walked around the strange object, noticing that no matter where he looked at it from it appeared to be a flat surface like a mirror. He quickly approached the table and looked down at what he had hoped he had seen, his clothes! The jeans, t-shirt and even socks he had been wearing when he laid down to try out Discovering Magic. He immediately grabbed the t-shirt off the top of the pile and pulled it on, as he did, he felt the Magic of the Camouflage quaver and break, so altering his appearance enough cancelled the spell. He heard Ishare approaching from around the other side of the odd glass object, avoiding looking at it. Ishare nodded to a leather pack just a bit down from Mikes clothing, ¡°That is mine, bring it over here with you, we need to escape,¡± there was a fast urgency to Ishare¡¯s gestures. Mike nodded and grabbed the pack finding it constructed not unlike a backpack from Earth he swung one of the straps over a shoulder and grunted at its weight. He approached Ishare to once again stand in front of the huge chunk of broken glass, or behind it, from the perspective of the door. Ishare signed to him, ¡°Your companion said that your way out was in this room?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure this is what it meant, I¡¯ll ask it what to do now. Quest: Escape,¡± he said, willing the screen to appear with a minor illusion spell, despite Ishare¡¯s Presence.
Quest: Escape! You have reached the point of no return before you lies the cause of your predicament, this is a Shard, a broken piece of the dimensional barrier between the Mortal and Spiritual realms, It has manifested in the Mortal realm due to the slow decay of this barrier over millennia. There are many types of shard but this one has the power to reach across dimensions to fulfil the Desires of its user, you can use it in two ways to complete this quest. Touch the surface of the Shard with your Right Hand and look into your reflection, wish to escape from this place to somewhere else in this realm. Rewards: The Class system. The Plunder system. Not being invasively mindread until you are a vegetable. OR Touch the surface with your left hand and Imagine going home. WARNING: The chances of this returning you to Earth safely are less than 10%. The Trip will once again expose you to Chaos, the AI and your mind are more stably connected than the last time, however, it is using the magic of this Dimension, this magic may not function on Earth. You may end up in a similar state upon your return as you did on your arrival. It is unknown whether methods exist on Earth that could treat you in that state. CHOOSE NOW
As Mike finished reading he heard a feminine shout of rage coming from outside the room and echoing towards them down the hall. ¡°ISHARE!¡± Mike looked to the Dark elf and saw that urgency wash from his face, a twinge of a small apologetic smile forming on his lips, he looked mike in the eyes and signed, ¡°This is my fate, for my offering Pain commanded me to have you escape from here before Ailish arrived. The High Elves and Light cannot be allowed to have you,¡± as he made the sign for offering his jaw flexed as if in remembered pain, ¡°I am sorry I lied. Seeking their counsel was necessary and contacting them is done in very specific ways. They told me how you may escape, but did not tell me I would escape with you, I fear this is the end of my journey.¡± as he signed Mike felt an immense aura of Light mana coming toward them fast. As he finished his hands shot out, not superhumanly quick but fast enough for Mike to not have time to react. He grabbed Mike''s right wrist and pressed his palm against the cold surface of the Shard, his other hand grasping the back of his head and forcing him to look into the icy blue of his reflection''s eyes. Chapter 13 - New Scenery The moment Mike¡¯s palm touched the Shard he felt the tattoo react, it had sent him feelings through magic before for notifications and had always been moving slightly in his peripheral vision, but now was the first time that he felt like the tattoo that had been marked into his arm wasalive. It writhed on his skin and it was straining a part of him that he could barely feel, it was related to his magical senses, but not them. It wanted something, something that the shard had. It couldn¡¯t get to it though. Then he felt that it wanted him to do something, something that he was supposed to be doing. The escape, he had been thrown off by Ishare¡¯s confession and sudden assistance.He needed to look at himself in the mirror and wish for escape, as he remembered this he felt that aura of Light mana finally reaching the room. Time to go, no matter what Ishare had done. He looked at himself, his face much gaunter than he remembered it, his cheekbones and jaw visible where they had been covered by extraneous fat last he saw them, his shirt was hanging on him rather loosely, a logo of a shield with wings and the letters P.R.T on it over his left chest. Mum had made him this shirt for him. No, he couldn¡¯t think of home, he needed to think of escape. He looked at his reflection in the eyes and wished fervently to be elsewhere, to leave this bloody dank dungeon and the grasp of these bloody High Elves who wanted to pry his soul open and pick though its contents. As he finally did this he felt a change, the hard surface melted under his fingers and he felt them slip into it as if it were water, then he felt the tattoo reaching for what it wanted, he couldn¡¯t tell if it was the Shard pulling him in or the tattoo tugging him forward, but he was being slowly pulled into the surface. He looked back to see a furious woman in elaborate gold and white robes, hands glowing like white spotlights come around the side of the shard into view. Her skin was gold and her eyes were slitted like a reptile¡¯s, her long hair was silver as it fell back over her shoulders, her face somehow became angrier than it already was as she saw him. ¡°NO!¡± she shouted, raising her hand. A column of white light blasted from it towards him, but before it could there was a dark figure between him and the beam, Ishare looked back one last time as Mike felt his shoulder being pulled into the surface of the Shard. The tattoo was finally completely engulfed and he felt that vague sense of strangeness lighten as the tattoo found what it wanted Power, Knowledge, Understanding. Mike once again heard the distant sound of shattering glass approaching him and blacked out. *** Mike¡¯s eyes fluttered open and for the second time, he found himself lying down in an unfamiliar setting, this time he could see the sky though, sought of. Before he could examine his surroundings further there was a familiar ding and a notification screen appeared about a foot from his face.
1/2 Congratulations! You have completed the Quest: Escape! With Ishare¡¯s assistance, you managed to escape from the High Elf research facility, He could not accompany you however and was left in a conflict with a powerful High Elf Soulsear(Priestess) named Ailish, who had finally arrived to examine your soul. You have nothing but the shirt on your back and the contents of Ishare¡¯s pack, which he had you retrieve before your escape. You are now in the northern wilderness area of the Gilded forest, the home province of the Gilded Empire. They will be searching for you, though it is unlikely they know anything of your whereabouts, the method of travel you utilised is incredibly dangerous and cannot be easily traced or repeated, as the Shard was destroyed by your passage. Rewards: The Class SystemYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The AI gained Power, Knowledge and Understanding from using the shard to connect itself briefly to the overlying laws that govern the operation of this dimension. It can now grow itself more freely, it wishes to use this power to progress one of its core directives DISCOVER MAGIC. But its access to the power and knowledge of this dimension is limited, you must choose a direction for the AI to continue its growth, How shall it DISCOVER MAGIC? Open the Class window for options and more information. The Plunder System The way that you gain experience is through pushing the limits of your Body, Mind and Soul. Each time you push the limits of each aspect it naturally absorbs a tiny amount of the ambient mana that exists in the Mortal realm. This mana is known as Arcane mana and has no elemental alignment, so when your aspects absorb this mana they give it an alignment related to the part of yourself that you are straining, allowing that part of you to grow using the mana¡¯s energy, this is EXP. You are not unique in this. All creatures of the Mortal realm do this as a natural part of their growth. The AI has categorised the parts of you that it sees as the easiest and most beneficial parts for you to strain to gain EXP for each aspect and measured them for you to see your progress. these are your STATS. This is a slow process, especially as the higher your stats are, the harder they are to strain, and the slower you gain EXP. So the AI has found a way to use the tattoo to speed up this process. Plunder EXP from other creatures. If you kill a creature and touch the hand-marked with the tattoo to a specific part of its body for each aspect you will absorb the experience that the creature has yet to fully assimilate, gaining that experience for yourself. You can only do this for one aspect per creature. To absorb a creature''s Physical EXP, touch the tattoo to its chest over its heart. To absorb a creature''s Mental EXP, touch the tattoo to the front of its skull. To absorb a creature''s Magical EXP, touch the tattoo to the back of its skull. You have received a Quest: Survive. Next
Well, that was all very interesting, it seemed the AI was more inclined to give detailed explanations now that he wasn¡¯t in immediate danger of mind fuckery. Though it was still obviously prioritising some info over other info. For a second, Mike just closed his eyes and breathed. It had been two months since he had laid down in his bed to play with the latest video game tech, to have some fun and decompress, but it felt like hours. He didn¡¯t know how long he had been awake down in the cell, he had been either boggled by confusion or hopped up on wonder and adrenaline at what was his life now. From using magic for the first time to befriending Ishare, to being lied to by him and being teleported across the region by a broken piece of this dimension. Right, he did need to see where he was. He was also lying on the backpack that Ishare had given him and it was getting uncomfortable. So he opened his eyes and sat up, looking at his surroundings. His mouth slowly lolled open as he took them in. He was surrounded by colossal trees, he could barely judge their height. They each had to be more than fifty metres tall with trunks that were more than 4 metres across. Their branches didn¡¯t start until about halfway up their trunks and covering those branches were golden leaves, not the yellow colour of some autumn leaves. The sun shone down through the canopy of the golden leaves and they shone like metal. When he subconsciously turned on his Mana Sight the world lit up anew. The trees were surrounded by marbled brown and green flows of mana that ran up and down their trunks, up above the leaves were surrounded by a golden nimbus of mana like the Guardian jaguar had been. The light shining down between the leaves was a mix of the pure white Light mana and mana that glowed yellow to his sight, there was so much more, down in the dungeon it had only been the diffuse Light mana everywhere and the compacted Dark mana in the places that the Light mana wasn¡¯t, now there was just so much, it was almost too much to take in. A grudge for Ishare for taking away his chance to go home had been slowly building in the back of his mind, but seeing this, he could almost forgive the man for lying and manipulating him, apparently in the service to a god that Mike didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t understand, any more than Ishare himself had explained, maybe it was enough, for Ishare at least, that god was going to have to answer some questions someday. If he got to live in this world now, maybe it was worth it. Chapter 14 - Level up and Loot He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes again, that was enough gawking, for now, He had choices to make and a lot of stuff to do. Taking a more detailed look around he saw the trunk to one of the huge trees not too far from him, he got up and slowly walked over to it. Looking around with mana sight both on and off to make sure there were no immediate threats in his vicinity. He didn¡¯t see anything so he sat down against the tree, taking the pack off his shoulder as he did so and setting it down beside him. Once sitting he said out loud, ¡°Next.¡± and the next notification window showed up.
2/2 Magic aspect Level up! You have gained 2 distributable Magic stats Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Average Level 2
Physical Statistics 0
Level 2
Exp 5%
Strength 8 (+/-)
Endurance 8 (+/-)
Agility 9 (+/-)
Dexterity 9 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 5%
Intelligence 15 (+/-)
Wisdom 11 (+/-)
Perception 9 (+/-)
Willpower 9 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 2
Level 3
Exp 10%
Affinity 16 (+/-)
Attunement 6 (+/-)
Control 9 (+/-)
Resistance 6 (+/-)
General Points 4
So that was the level up notification he had felt after disabling the ward on the door. Seeing the stats that he could spend he wondered whether he should save them for later after he picked a class. He decided to keep the GP for that. He would put the two Magic stats into control though, needing to speak or wave his arms around to cast sucked and he had yet to hit a wall for attunement.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Withthat done, he decided to find out what Ishare had left him in the pack, as he wanted to give the Classes his full attention. He managed to open the top flap of the leather pack by undoing a buckled strap, he flipped it open and reached inside, pulling out the first object he touched. His hand came out gripping a dagger by its sheathed blade, his hand paused in surprise for a second but he then brought it closer to inspect. Gripping the hilt in a reverse grip and the sheathe in his other hand, he pulled the blade free. It shone like the steel it likely was as he inspected it, it was likely not Ishare¡¯s primary weapon, but it certainly was a weapon, not just a belt knife for cutting meat or handy use. Mike flipped the weapon around into a standard grip and experimentally gave it a swing, but was interrupted by the ding of a notification.
You have attempted to learn the skill Physical Skill: Knife Fighting. This Skill has the requirements: 10 AGI 10 DEX You can still use the weapon, but It is highly discouraged. You should avoid physical conflict until you qualify for a Physical combat skill. Their requirements are: Unarmed Combat: 8 STR, 10 END Knife Fighting: 10 AGI, 10 DEX Swordsmanship: 10 STR, 10 DEX Macemanship: 10 STR, 10 END Axemanship: 10 STR, 8 DEX These requirements exist to stop you from harming yourself while practising with deadly implements, please take them into account.
He stopped his swing and lowered the dagger as he read the notification. Narrowing his eye he thought, would it be worth it to spend two GP to be able to gain the Knife Fighting Skill? It was the ability to use the only weapon he had on hand. He had no idea how to fight with Magic. Yes, it was he decided, opening his stat screen to spend the two points. After he did that he dismissed the screens then swung the knife again, but it felt wrong. He felt the sensation of a notification as he swung it for the third time and he realised what was wrong. He was sitting down, who on Earth used a knife as a weapon while sitting down? So he put the pack to the side and stood up, then took a fighting stance, he stood with the dagger tip extended out in front of him in his right hand, his left hand open palm facing down as if ready to slap or ball up into a punch, his knees were bent and he was standing on the balls of his feet. He blinked, how had he known to stand like this? He looked down at himself examining the posture, he had no idea how to fight with a dagger, but seeing this stance gave him some ideas. He experimentally jabbed with the dagger. His whole body moved forward the motion starting with a twist in his waist to a step forward with his right foot in time with his jab, which extended out with his arm. That didn¡¯t feel as right as just standing had, he was going to need to practice this. What the Skill description said was a good start for now. ¡°Knife fighting, Skill description,¡± he said out loud.
You have unlocked the Physical Skill: Knife fighting Congratulations! You have unlocked your first Physical skill! All Physical Skills work by altering your muscle memory, so when you attempt with your body that relates to a Skill, that Skill will make it as if you have done that action before. This muscle memory is not permanent though and will vanish if you unequip the skill. To level up the Skill, learn how it wants you to make actions and repeat them until they are truly muscle memory, you will then be able to perform these actions with the skill unequipped. The Skill levelling indicates you have properly learned what it is trying to teach at that level and will move on to teach you the next action, no longer providing the muscle memory for that action, expecting you to be able to perform it on your own.
Skill Governing Stats Requirements Mastery Max Mastery Description
Knife Fighting AGI DEX 10 AGI, 10 DEX Amateur Novice Knife Fighting is a Skill that teaches you how to handle knives and daggers. It teaches you how to stand and dodge and where to stab and cut for the greatest effect. At the amateur levels, it will train you how to stand and dodge, only attacking once certain of landing a hit.
So the Skill would aid him with one action at a time until he had that action down, then it would move on to the next action, expecting him to remember what he had learned. That sounded fair, if the Skill slots were an indicator the Skills had limited space to work with, and in this case, he was the limiting factor. As he trained and levelled he could use more Skills. Meaning it could teach him more at once. It seemed that the Knife Fighting Skill was currently trying to teach him how to stand, he would need to practise, but for now back to the pack. He sat back down and slid the dagger back into its sheath, placing it to the side for now. He once again plunged his hand in the bag and pulled something out. A shirt, he reached in again, another shirt. He pulled out clothing until it appeared that he had two full sets, hanging each item over his shoulders to keep them separate as he examined them. One was a nice set of clothing, a dark blue silk shirt and dark brown linen pants, there were even two clean pairs of underwear. The other set was more worn and obviously intended for travel, a pair of thick trousers with leather padded knees and a thin shirt that he didn¡¯t know the fabric of that was obviously meant to be worn under a much thicker fabric jacket that had leather padding on the chest shoulders and elbows, not a gambeson, but not too far off. The jacket dyed a very dark green with the leather still brown and the rest all dark brown. Mike didn¡¯t fancy wearing a t-shirt and coarse prisoner pants as he continued this adventure. So he quickly changed into the clothes that were meant for travelling, then he reached into the pack and hoped, ¡°Yes!¡± He pulled out a pair of sturdy boot-like shoes made of leather, stuffed into each of them was a rolled-up pair of thick socks or were they stockings? They came up almost to his knees as he pulled them on, he shoved his foot in one and found it a snug fit, well, probably better than nothing. Once he was changed he sat back down, he had chucked the prison pants as far as he could, he may go get them later to use for kindling, but they could stay there for now. He folded the nice clothes and settled them in his lap as he sat down to check the last of the pack''s contents, it was almost empty, only a few items moving around in the bottom. He pulled out a thick oiled leather pouch tied with a leather cord next, he loosened it to find food rations inside, enough for a few days, he thought, if he was super frugal. He didn¡¯t eat any now, finding he oddly wasn¡¯t hungry, had the High Elves fed him while he was unconscious? Or was it the healing that had done it? More questions that he likely couldn¡¯t answer immediately. He would try asking the AI later. He reached in and grabbed what felt like a velvet pouch he pulled it out and found it to be a velvet pouch. It was made of dark black velvet and fastened shut with a thin black cord when Mike brought his mana sight into focus to check the bag as he had for all of the previous items to find nothing, he saw that the bag was coated in thick layers of Dark magic. Smiling he opened his Skills window and swapped his current magic skill from Light magic to Dark magic, he felt the freezing sensation that he had each time. When it was done he wondered why he hadn¡¯t felt that while unlocking the Knife Fighting Skill, or at all when he had unlocked Skills in the past. Another question for later. He brought his focus back to the pouch, now able to sense the Dark mana he could feel a lot of it coming from the palm-sized pouch, he loosened the tie around its mouth to see inside. It was pitch black inside, which he should have expected. He raised his palm and poured the contents of the pouch out onto it, a bunch of tiny black beads poured onto his spread palm as he tipped the pouch ends up he found 10 in total, he moved his hands apart and looked at the contents of each to see which was the source of the Dark mana. They both were, the pouch less so though, it contained less than a fifth the dark mana as the ten rice-sized beads did. He placed the pouch on top of the clothing on his lap to come back to later. He then picked up one of the beads between thumb and forefinger and brought it closer to get a better look. After a few seconds, he was pretty certain, it was a gem, he had no idea what kind as it was packed full of so much Dark mana that it looked like a hole in reality, but it was a cut gemstone of the kind that was fitted into a ring. He looked down at his palm, ten of them. This was likely worth more than a new car back home, depending on what kind of gemstone they were and how they were cut. Judging by their current use though they were likely much more useful to him as some kind of Dark mana batteries though. He placed the one in his fingers with the others and closed his hand around them. As he lowered it though he saw that the Dark mana gemstones had left sand grain-sized spots of dark mana behind, which he could sense just like in the gemstones. It was in the between. No, the Aether, yes that word fit. The unreachable mystical layer that overlapped with the terrestrial realm, filled with mystical energy, Aether fit perfectly. He moved his hand again and there was a clump of Dark mana this time overlapping the spot where the Gems had been resting in his hand, like drew to like if he understood what the AI had said about the Aether, there was so much Dark mana in the gems that it attracted more dark mana from the Spiritual realm and into the Aether. He felt like this was important, that this could be exploited somehow by someone as skilled as Ishare if they had his abilities. Well, he would work it out eventually. He picked up the pouch in his free hand and examined it, he probed towards it with his attunement sense. The mana he was feeling was the mana inside the pouch, the mana that coated it was imperceptible with his senses alone, a spell then. If he had to guess it made the pouch fill up with dark mana over time, which the gemstones then absorbed. Was this how Ishare had replenished his mana, this world¡¯s equivalent to a mana potion? He wasn¡¯t sure, but he could use it. As he looked around he had seen a distinct lack of Dark mana, so these would come very handy. Though he wondered why the High Elves hadn¡¯t found them. He tipped the handful of gems back into the pouch and pulled it shut, slipping it into a pocket on the inside of his coat. He found his curiosity for the contents of the pack satiated, for now, as he placed the now catalogued contents back inside and fastened the buckle again he said, ¡°Class Window.¡± Chapter 15 - Classes
Class Window The ultimate goal of the AI is to DISCOVER MAGIC. This is not a goal it can achieve independently, it is bound to your soul and dependant on your action for its function, so it will allow you to choose how you wish to explore Magic. That is the purpose of your Class. It will be a part of you that levels up independently of the stats that your body generates from processing ambient mana. The level of your Class is more representative of the current power level of the AI itself, and the amount that it can aid you in your survival and progression. So you must Choose your Class. No matter your choice a few things will remain the same, with every level of your class the AI will be able to sustain one more spell effect independently, such as the windows. The AI will continue to aid you in your progression outside of your class, though it recommends that you take your Class into account when assigning stats from aspect levels and average levels. Your Class options will be based around the different paths a magic-user takes towards power, each taking a different approach to the way they understand and craft mana into spells. Upon choosing a class you will immediately gain the Core Skills and the level up rewards for level 1. All classes have a cap at level 25, at this level you will need to seek out a new Shard, to choose a path of progression for the AI beyond your Class. If you come into contact with another Shard of sufficient power before then, you may choose to Multi-Class and gain the ability to level up another Class. Shards like that are very rare though, so do not count on this opportunity. Class Options:
Wizard
The Wizard is the path of Arcane logic. It is the path of choosing to concretely understand the consequences of your actions with mana. To experiment with your spells and see how they affect the world, to calculate the amounts of mana you use and cast spells as efficiently as possible. To eventually craft Arcane runes from your Mind and Magic that define it, and use them to focus your spells even further. As a Wizard you will start from the very basics, learning the underlying principles of mana before you start to grasp the true potential of the Class, be aware that this is a slow process that will likely hamper you until you can either puzzle through the early levels on your own or find a teacher who can aid your learning. Core stat Controlis a core stat of theWizardClass. Choosing Wizard will make Control gain Magic aspectEXPat the same rate as the Secondary Magic stat, gaining more Magic aspectEXPfor straining its limits and levelling up Control-basedSkills. Core skills
Governing Stats Requirements Description
Arcane Logic INT WIS Wizard Class Arcane Logic is the Core Skill for the Wizard Class, it aids in the understanding of arcane physics and allows one to intuit the rules that mana follows. Equipping this Skill will allow you to sense and understand amounts of mana numerically, accurately to the 10''s for mana under your control and accurately to the 100''s for mana that you can sense.
Arcane Magic AFI CON Arcane Magic is the manipulation of Arcane mana into Magical Phenomenon, spells. At the amateur levels, Arcane Magic can be used to temporarily increase mental ability, and assign specific properties to Arcane mana based on the understanding of the user. Equipping this Skill enables you to sense Arcane mana and to use it to cast spells of its current mastery level and one higher. This will also stop the Skill Mana sight from filtering Arcane mana from your sense, its omnipresence in the Mortal realm was deemed to be too distracting for you without an understanding of what it was.
Level up benefits Progression These actions gain EXP in the Wizard Class in this order of effectiveness:
Elementalist
The Elementalist is the path of Elemental understanding. It is the path of immersing yourself in the mundane elements to gain an understanding of their Magical counterparts, it is not an academic understanding you will seek, but more ephemeral and subjective truths. What aspects of the world do the elements represent? How do they interact with each other? What is their most Natural state? These are the questions you will seek to answer as an Elementalist. As an Elementalist you will begin progressing your understanding of the elements immediately, you will begin your journey with the five elements Fire, Water, Wood, Earth and Metal. These are the basis for all of the other elements, and understanding in each will lead you further down the path of the Elementalist. Core stat Perceptionis a core stat of the ElementalistClass. Choosing Elementalist will make Perceptiongain Mental aspectEXPat the same rate as theSecondary Mentalstat, gaining more MentalaspectEXPfor straining its limits and levelling up Perception-basedSkills. Core skills
Governing Stats Requirements Description
Elemental Perception PER ATU Elementalist Class Elemental Perception is the Core Skill of the Elementalist Class, It will allow you to perceive the relations between natural elements and elemental mana, allowing you to more easily gain elemental Magic Skills and deepen your understanding of elemental mana
Fire magic AFI CON Fire Magic is the manipulation of Fire mana into Magical Phenomenon, spells. At the Amateur Levels Fire Magic can be used to create Magical fires of natural heats and sizes, and to make sure that Magic fires under your control don''t burn you. Equipping this Skill enables you to sense Fire mana and to use it to cast spells of its current mastery level and one higher.
Level up benefits ProgressionUnauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. These actions gain EXP in the Elementalist Class in this order of effectiveness:
Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is the path of Instinctive Magic. It is the path of giving yourself over to magic, letting it influence you as much as you influence it, This allows for incredible feats of power even at the early stages of its progression. This power does not come for free, the power of the Magic will grow with your power to resist its influence, leaving you in a constant fight for control over your emotions and mood. As a Sorcerer your currently equipped Magic skills will be used instinctively as you need them, but you will receive Emotional drift as you do this, the kind of drift will depend on the type of magic being used, Fire Magic causing anger and fervour, Light Magic causing awe and passion, Dark magic causing fear and apathy. Core stat Willpoweris a core stat of the SorcererClass. Choosing Sorcerer will make WillpowergainMentalaspectEXPat the same rate as theSecondaryMentalstat, gaining moreMentalaspectEXPfor straining its limits and levelling up Willpower-basedSkills. Core skills
Governing Stats Requirements Description
Instinctive Casting AFI WIL Sorcerer Class Instinctive Casting is a Core Skill of the Sorcerer Class, it will let you cast Spells based on your instincts. this means you will control your Magic consciously, nor will you learn the spells that you cast this way, as you will lack understanding of how they function. Each time you do this you will receive Emotional Drift your ability to influence the Instinctive Casting will increase with the amount of emotional drift you are under.
Drift Resistance WIL RES Sorcerer Class Drift resistance is a Core skill of the Sorcerer Class, it aids you in functioning normally while under the influence of Emotional Drift from Instinctive Casting. This skill does not cancel out the Emotional drift, it merely makes it easier to ignore and resist the impulses of the drift.
Level up benefits Progression These actions gain EXP for the Sorcerer Class in this order of effectiveness:
Monk
The Monk is the path of using mana and Magic to enhance your body consciously. It is the path of the Magic warrior, using your skills in magic to perfectly complement your skills in close quarters battle. You will Be able to sense your body perfectly and perfect the arts of combat at a greater rate. As a Monk you will be able to inhale your currently equipped mana types to temporarily enhance different aspects of your body, Earth for toughness and strength, Water for balance and grace, Darkness for silence and stealth. Core Stat Resistanceis a core stat of the MonkClass. Choosing Monk will make ResistancegainMagic aspectEXPat the same rate as theSecondary Magic stat, gaining moreMagic aspectEXPfor straining its limits and levelling up Resistance-basedSkills. Core skills
Governing Stats Requirements Description
Mana Breathing AFI RES Monk Class Mana Breathing is a Core skill of the Monk Class, it Allows you to breath to inhale your currently equipped mana types to temporarily enhance different aspects of your body, Earth for toughness and strength, Water for balance and grace, Darkness for silence and stealth.
Greater Proprioception STR PER Monk Class Greater Proprioception is a Core Skill of the Monk Class, it gives you a greatly increased sense of proprioception, the sense that allows you to feel the position of your limbs and body in relation to itself. At Amateur levels it will allow you to sense the tension and position of individual muscles in a region of your body that you are focusing on. Equipping this skill will increase the effectiveness of Physical stats, and allow for faster progress of Physical Skills.
Level up benefits: Progression These actions gain EXP for the Monk Class in this order of effectiveness: Classes you are unqualified for: Cleric To be a Cleric requires the aid of a god, as you lack contact with any of the gods and do not wish to devote yourself to one at this time, this Class is unavailable to you. Warlock To be a Warlock is to bond to a spirit as either Familiar or Patron and let it aid you in the control of magic. While this might seem like what the AI does for you, it is a very different process because the AI is not an independent entity, but rather an extension of your mind and soul, You cannot bond with yourself. Due to the lack of access to another spirit to aid you, this Class is unavailable to you.
As the huge window appeared Mikes''s eyes focused, reading every line as it came. Each class seemed distinct from the others. They were named after the Magic classes of TTRPG¡¯s back home but the names matched the descriptions and explanations that Ishare had given in his magic lesson less than a few hours ago, depending on how long he had been unconscious. But which Class was for him? They each had their strengths and weaknesses. Wizard seemed to be weaker towards the start but snowballed in power as the Wizard gained more knowledge and understanding of mana and Magic, Arcane logic sounded useful but not essential, while Arcane magic made him very curious, wasn''t that the type of man that made EXP? Elementalist seemed the most steady of them all, and gave him Fire Magic, which along with being awesome seemed eminently useful, though he would need a steady supply of fire mana to actually use it, he wasn¡¯t sure if he had access to it in any great amounts, lighting a fire would likely bet him some, but it would also draw attention to him. Mike didn¡¯t know whether animals in this forest were afraid of fire like they were back on earth. Sorcerer sounded dangerous, it promised him power right now but at the risk of self-control, his will stat was still rather not impressive or even ordinary from what he understood, and the Class seemed to rely on it quite a lot, in return for that risk though he got Lightning Magic which was cooler than Fire Magic but likely less useful and even less available than Fire Mana was. Monk was the only class that he felt comfortable putting to the side straight away. Not that it was bad. He just had no idea how to fight, he had one level in Knife Fighting, and while the Skill Greater Proprioception promised easier training in physical skills, likely because it would let him sense exactly how the AI was altering his muscle memory, he wasn¡¯t exactly comfortable with an up-close and personal kind of combat. Sure he had fantasized about wearing plate armour and riding into battle swinging a great sword as much as the next guy but he felt like he had matured enough to want the sharp metal objects as far away from himself as possible. He felt like he could also put sorcerer to the side, it sounded plenty powerful but the downsides were more off-putting than the promised upsides, he didn¡¯t want magic bending his mind into mush, he had gotten close enough to that once already, and he didn¡¯t want to try it again on purpose. He wasn¡¯t overly disappointed by the inability to choose Cleric or Warlock. He wasn¡¯t ready to pledge himself to some higher being for power just yet, be it god or spirit and he lacked the knowledge of how to locate one that would be weak enough to bind to him at level 2. So it was down to the Wizard and the Elementalist which one suited him best? Chapter 16 - Deliberation and Choice He probably had to think deeper about these options than how cool they were. Considering more seriously, he still felt like he wouldn¡¯t pick Monk or Sorcerer. Monk because as he had already considered, he didn¡¯t know how to fight, it sounded like the AI had taken cues from Cultivation stories to make the Class even possible for him, as the way Ishare had explained it, the Elves who followed this path already had Magic in their blood and use it to directly improve their physical abilities, so the AI was giving him the ability to copy that by letting him draw in extra mana through breathing somehow. It sounded very interesting, and if he ever did run into another Shard like the last, he would certainly consider choosing Monk as his second Class, since it would be great to be able to throw magic at people from a distance and punch them in the face if they got too close for comfort. Sorcerer was not only sacrificing control for power, but also understanding, if he picked it he would be giving up the chance to know Magic, in the ways that both Elementalist and Wizard promised, and even Monk to a smaller degree. Choosing this power now and likely even in the future would likely make him safer, it would mean being able to fight back against the High Elves if they found him rather than having to hide, unless they came in huge numbers. Mike didn¡¯t want to sacrifice that understanding though, he wanted to know how these things worked, he already knew that Humans were apparently at a huge disadvantage to the Elves due to their lack of mana for spell casting and that it was widely believed that Humans were incapable of Magic for that reason. He could use Magic though, and although he certainly wasn¡¯t representative of the average Human population of this Dimension. Did that mean that Humans here could too if given the right teaching or stimuli? Could the High Elves make a similar tattoo to his own, using similar Magic, to make another Human Magic-user? they wouldn¡¯t have the AI, which was an incredibly important part of the process. If they had seen him using Magic or managed to get it out of Ishare that he could, they very well might try, just to see if they could, and if it worked they might make themselves able to use magic like he did, which sounded all kinds of bad. Though it seemed that Ishare had been crucial to the design and creation of the tattoo. So they would either have to not kill him or find another Dark Elf Wizard willing to aid in their experiments. He wasn¡¯t sure if he wished that Ishare was alive or if he had died in that blast. The High Elf that he had seen at the end, Ailish, Ishare had called her, seemed rather angry at him specifically, and even if they hadn¡¯t cut out his tongue as Mike suspected. They may still punish him for helping Mike escape, though if Mike was correct in his suspicion¡­ That Ishare had been implying that he had cut or bitten off his tongue to contact his god. He wasn¡¯t sure if they could torture him effectively if that was true. How did you torture someone who worshipped a god named Pain? Mike closed his eyes, he had been trying to not think about what had happened at the end, he needed to focus on his current issues. Not on the fact that the only person he had known in this world was now likely dead or being tortured for information about him. He hadn¡¯t known him long at all, less than six hours, but he had helped Mike escape from what the AI assured him would have been a terrible fate, even if it was to serve some god, he had still taken that beam at the end, whether it was lethal or not. Mike took deep breaths trying to steer his mind back onto the topics of Classes, Magic and Humans. An Idea came to him, one good enough to finally refocus him. Could he create another human Magic-user? He had the tattoo and the AI if he could duplicate either than he would likely be able to do something to give the Humans of this world a better fighting chance against the Elves. Not that he knew the greater social climate of this world, but from things the AI had implied, what Ishare had said about the Elves and his interactions with two of the three forms of them, he felt it likely that it wasn¡¯t an equal relationship, to say the least. Though that could certainly be personal bias. He had met three Elves in total, two of them had been trying to imprison him and take his soul out for dissection, even if it seemed they were fairly clinical about it, rather than cruel. The last had tried to help him escape, lied to him about the cruelty of their captors, taught him about magic, helped him properly escape, confessed his lies and then sacrificed himself to facilitate that escape. In that order. Perhaps his bias was a little strong. Either way, he still felt like it would help to give Humans access to the thing that they currently most lacked. It was a goal, and he was certainly in need of those right now, time to ask the AI some questions. Instead of speaking out loud this time Mike tried mentally directing his question towards the AI. Eleven control had to be worth something, and he was getting tired of talking to empty air. ¡°Can the AI or the tattoo be recreated or transferred to other humans to give them similar abilities to mine?¡± he thought at it.
You have asked a question that requires the AI to speculate based on unknown information. The AI is currently not truly cognizant and cannot give you a concise answer, would you like the AI to create a quest with the objective. ¡°Recreate or transfer the AI or the tattoo to another individual to give them similar abilities to your own.¡± If you do so the AI will be able to use it¡¯s stronger processing power during your sleep or unconsciousness to formulate an answer to this question and provide possible rewards for such a task.
So he had finally asked it a question that it hadn¡¯t prepared for in advance. It was interesting to know that it had more processing power while he was asleep. Was it using his processing power while he was asleep? That was¡­ concerning. He sent it a mental affirmation and the window changed.
You have Created Quest: Empower Others Description: Pending¡­ Completion Requirements: Pending... Rewards: Pending¡­ Please come back after getting at least 1 hour of sleep for more information.
An hour hey? Well, he wasn¡¯t going to get that now, he had a decision to make, and it seemed like the AI couldn¡¯t break the tie for him with more information. He had been wondering which Class would be best for pursuing this goal but he already knew the answer to that question. The Elementalist may be the most steady Class. With a perfect balance of magical understanding with immediate and future combat potential. Focusing on the natural elements and their interactions for power and understanding. All of the Magic he had used so far had been elemental, but that didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t other varieties out there. The mystery of Arcane magic, and the hint of Soul Magic that he had heard of from Ishare and the AI likely didn¡¯t fall under that categorization either. The person who had been key to making the tattoo in the first place had been a Wizard, and he had been a Wizard restricted to one type of mana, what could Mike achieve if he attained Ishares level of skill in three elements? Or even 4? If he could discover rules that applied to all different types of mana and Magic, then studying one could aid him in understanding another, compounding his efforts. Choosing Wizard would make him weaker for the time being, but there was no reason he couldn¡¯t become just as powerful as the sorcerer over time, he would just have to rely on his wits and talent to get him by in the meantime. Mike looked to the Huge window with the Class options still displayed on it, ¡°I choose Wizard,¡± he said out loud this time mostly to fulfil a feeling of dramatic effect. The window immediate responded changing to show a new screen.
Congratulations! You have become a Level 1 Wizard! You have chosen to walk the Path of the Wizard, you will study the foundations of magic and seek to understand its deepest mysteries. You have been granted the benefits for level 1 of the Wizard Class. Stat Change Control will now gain Magic aspect EXP at the same rate as the Secondary Magic stat. You have gained the stats: +1 distributable Mental stat.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. +1 distributable Magic stat. You have gained the skills: Arcane Logic Arcane Magic
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 59.2kg
Wizard Level 1
Wizard EXP 0%
Average Level 2
Physical Statistics 0
Level 2
Exp 10%
Strength (STR) 8 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 8 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 10 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 1
Level 1
Exp 40%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 11 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 9 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 9 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 1
Level 3
Exp 50%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 6 (+/-)
Control (CON) 11 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 6 (+/-)
General Points 2
Mike felt the tattoo change, it was subtle, but the AI interacting him like it had when he touched the Shard. Perhaps this was the feeling of a Class Level? Only one way to find out. He opened his Skills window to change his equipped Skills.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ? 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 1
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Amateur 10
Arcane Logic INT/WIS Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 3
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Mike moved the tick for Acting into the Arcane Logic slot, he felt that same freezing sensation and when it was done the world around him felt more solid somehow. He stretched out his Attunement sense stretching it in all directions to feel for Light mana, the only kind he could sense at the moment. Interestingly he didn¡¯t feel any, he looked around himself with Mana Sight, he could see the same overlay of coloured space that he always did, but the nearest patch of Light mana was at a bright spot about ten metres away. He wanted to test out his new Skill. He stood up and walked over to the bright ray of sunlight that his eyes were seeing, filled with pure white mana that was mixed almost evenly with streaks of yellow. As soon as it was within three metres of him, he could sense it, stopping at the flood of new information at that moment. He knew that he could sense less than 100 Light mana right now. He could feel Arcane Logic blurring across his mind, like a phone number or a password half-remembered, and he tried to latch onto it, but it slipped between mental fingers. He took more steps forward, bringing more of the Light mana with the range of his attunement sense. The numbers snapped into place as he stood in the centre of the ray of sunlight. There was now more than 100 light mana in his sense, and he knew how he knew that. The mana in the sunbeam had a specific density and was multiplied by the volume of the space that it was occupying to get the amount of mana in his range, it wasn''t very clear yet, and he could tell that if he delved deeper he would interact with the calculations more concretely. He also knew that there were other kinds of mana in his range and was having to inaccurately estimate their density and factor those assumptions into his equations of how much Light mana there was. That¡¯s why he could only sense it in factors of 100, without the ability to factor in more kinds of mana more accurately into his equation then he wouldn¡¯t be able to get a perfect reading. He started to reach out with his control to feel what controlling mana felt like now but before he could he heard a high pitched screech from above him and he spun around to face it. Diving down towards him fast was a huge bird with the head and antlers of a male deer, its beak-like mouth wide open and screeching, its huge talons reaching down towards him. Chapter 17 - Peryton A fucking peryton! Was Mike''s first thought. It wasn¡¯t a productive thought, but he was very curious about how this creature came to exist. Again not productive. As the huge predatory and if his table-top gaming knowledge was accurate, evil, creature dove towards him with its knife-like talons extended he flailed out with his control to grasp the Light mana in the Aether into an attack of some kind but found no purchase. He didn¡¯t know how he could attack with Light Magic. He had seen it used to put him to sleep and whatever that huge beam had been as he was escaping, but trying to make the mana do either now wasn¡¯t working. As the peryton was only feet from him he finally processed that he should get out of the way. He only managed to drop to the ground as the talons were less than a foot from his shoulders. He felt one of the monsters sharp talons cut a burning-hot line across his scalp and he screamed. His left hand shot up to cover the wound as it radiated agony as if it had been cut into his brain and he hit the ground on his back. The Mike from Earth before would have fainted now, he thought, and now he still wasn¡¯t far from it. He could feel the warm blood in his hair, on his hand and running down the back of his neck. He could feel his stomach turning as he opened his eyes and saw bits of his hair on the ground in front of him. ¡°No!¡± he growled, he sent a mental shove to the AI, telling it to put his free mental stat from the Wizard Level into Willpower. He felt the pain and the wooziness of his stomach lessen in his awareness, they were still there no better than before, but he could ignore them better now. He looked up to where he could see the peryton beating its wings and gaining altitude for another dive attack. He reached out with his control for the Light mana again, this time trying to just grasp it and control it, not giving it any intent. He got it this time and he felt the mana come under his control and be shifted from the Aether into the Mortal realm, he felt Arcane Logic come to life in his mind, those same unknown equations just out of focus telling him only the result, that he currently had just over 20 Light mana under his control. the glowing white mass of Light mana appeared before him, the size of his head, as he saw the peryton turning around to make its approach. The bright light of the mana didn¡¯t seem to bother it as it began its dive with a strong beat of its wings to propel itself towards him, screeching again as if to mock him. Mike could feel the Light mana trickling away, though not as fast as it had before his higher Control was slowing its decay somehow, he knew it would be gone in less than a minute though. Still he waited, what he had in mind wouldn¡¯t work if the monster had time to consider it. Right as the Peryton was less than two metres away Mike shaped the remaining mana into a spell, Minor illusion, he cast with no words or gestures just controlling the mana to take form. It worked, the mana shifted into a flat disk a metre across, the side that was facing Mike was grey and translucent, allowing him to see the diving peryton. The side that was angled upward was a mirror, he hoped. As the huge bird-thing shrieked in surprise. Mike quickly started to roll to the side, seeing it flap its wings to slow down as it got closer to its own reflection. It collided with the illusion and shrieked again in confusion as it broke into motes of Light mana, its talons digging into the ground where he had previously been lying. Mike put his hand under himself and pushed himself to his feet, feeling the limits of his 8 Strength. As he got to his feet he reached into his jacket where he had stored the dagger, grasping its hilt and pulling it free. He made the same stance as earlier from memory. He was less than two metres from the monster now and he could appreciate its size, even more, its wings had to be almost 6 metres from tip to tip. He moved to attack the nearest wing with his dagger and felt the smoothness of the Skill guiding his movement. He swiped the blade through the feathers in a downward cut, he didn¡¯t feel the blade contact flesh but the sharp edge cut through the feathers like paper. The peryton shrieked again, its confusion from the Minor Illusion finally fading as it screeched toward him and flapped its massive wings, to lift off the ground. Mike saw the wings grasp the catch the air under them as the monster took off, his mana sight flicked on and he saw the wing folding around a light green or cyan mana, as its wings beat again to gain more altitude the mana appeared under its wing again, not coming from the peryton itself, just fading into existence under its wings as they caught the air for lift. Mike blinked as the blood from his head wound dripped down over his left eye he reached up to wipe it away and his hand came back covered in blood. He felt a spike of dizziness but managed to focus as he forced himself to look back up at the peryton. He needed to attack it with something that mattered, but he had no idea how to use Light magic to do harm, it was obviously possible as he had seen the High Elf do. He did know a way to cause the monster pain though, but it would be incredibly risky. He looked up to the deer-headed bird and saw that it was high enough up now and was gliding around him in a circle, moving behind the huge trees and coming out the other side, he turned with it to stay facing it. It seemed to be warier now, he had hurt it, if only superficially. Its right-wing missing a swathe of feathers at the middle. He decided to take the risk and mentally commanded the AI to open his Skills window. Spoiler:Skill window
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ? 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 2
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
LanguageUnauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting WIS/WIL Amateur 10
Arcane Logic ? INT/WIS Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 3
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
He expected it to reach out with its talons as it had the last two times but it didn¡¯t, instead, it made another beat of its wings for more speed and lowered its head to ram into him with its huge branching antlers. Mike¡¯s mind screamed in terror but he couldn¡¯t move. Then suddenly he could and he immediately jumped to the side as fast as he could.As soon as the window appeared he raised his hand and moved the tick from Light Magic to Dark Magic. He froze up, and the peryton noticed. It immediately flapped its wings to accelerate towards him. This was one of the longest moments in his life as he saw the massive creature, intent on killing and eating him, dive towards him while he was completely frozen. He wasn¡¯t fast enough, again, he felt one of the branching prongs of the antlers hit his shoulder and he screamed again as it knocked him backwards and tumbling. The peryton screeched in triumph as it reached down towards him with its talons but he was on his back and he managed to make another swing of the dagger guided by the Skill, despite the aching pain of his shoulder. The monster screeched in anger as it drew its talons back up and flapped once more to gain altitude. Mike groaned as it moved up and away, behind him, he shifted his head to keep an eye on it and thought that that could have gone worse. A glance at his shoulder showed him that the antler hadn¡¯t pierced the leather padding, meaning that the pain from his shoulder right now was the huge bruise that he would likely have when this was done. If he survived. He had done what he wanted though and could now dimly sense the Dark mana in the pouch inside his jacket, he blindly reached in with his left hand as he continued to keep an eye on the peryton. He loosened the tie and put a finger in the pouch, as he did the amount of mana inside the one gem he was holding came to him from the passive calculations of the Arcane Logic Skill, there was more than 300 mana in just one of these gemstones. As he realised that, the peryton started to turn towards him for one last dive, if he couldn¡¯t stop it now then he was dead. He fed his control into the gemstone and grasped at the Dark mana inside, its density made it much easier to grasp the ephemeral element, though he needed to strain to actually extract it from the gemstone. He pulled his hand out of the jacket trailing a shadow of Dark mana. The peryton was coming towards him at breakneck speeds, or so he hoped. He raised his hand and guided the mana, giving it an objective like he had the last time he used Dark magic, he wanted the peryton to feel pain. He felt the mana shift from energy into a spell as the shadowy glove of Dark mana that he had taken from the gem shot out and maintained its shape. It hit the bird thing halfway through its dive. It shrieked in agony, its wings locking up folding inwards causing it to plummet to the ground with a crunch, more than three metres from Mikes position. It continued to shriek in pain as Mike saw the spell, still formed into a hand that was digging its fingers into its chest like claws. Mike wanted to sigh in relief but didn¡¯t have time, the pain it was feeling was only illusory, he needed to finish it while it was vulnerable. He lifted himself off the ground with his left arm only, making it to his knees before he could stand, he reached up and grasped his aching shoulder with his hand, then he walked towards the screaming creatures as fast as he could manage, four too slow steps. As he arrived before it he saw its eyes widen in confusion as the hand of mana started to dissipate. While it was still distracted Mike made the stance with his dagger, and stabbed forward guided by his skill. Before the peryton could regain its wits, his dagger was buried to the hilt in its throat. Its eyes looked up at him and its mouth opened, this close up it looked like a beak with serrations all along its inner edges like teeth. It tried to shriek at him again but it came out as a gurgle, its eyes unfocusing quickly as it died, slumping forward with a thud as its antlers dug into the ground beside Mike. Mike sighed as he collapsed to his knees beside it. That could have gone worse, he thought as he felt the blood from the still open wound on his head starting to slow slightly, likely not a good sign. The dizziness and pain that he had been holding off this whole time, which likely wasn¡¯t more than 2 minutes, started to hit him like a truck. He didn¡¯t have the energy to scream, but he did remember what the AI had told him about creatures he killed. He reached his right hand down and put it against the chest of the monster, over its heart. It likely didn¡¯t have any magic or mental EXP for him. He felt the tattoo grasping outward as it had when he touched the shard, it found what it wanted and more, he could feel it interacting with a part of the beast he couldn¡¯t feel, it took something from it and brought it back. Then a notification window appeared in front of him.
Congratulations! You have defeated Level 6 peryton! EXP gained from the fight 80% Physical EXP 20% Mental EXP 60% Magic EXP +1 Magic aspect Level! 40% Wizard EXP Skill Levels gained from the fight Light Magic +1 Knife fighting +2 Dark Magic +1 You have unlocked the spell
Spells Mastery Level Requirements Mana Cost Cast Time Duration Description
Chill Touch Amateur Dark Magic - Amateur 20 Dark mana Instantaneous 10 seconds after contact Emit a blast of Dark magic in the form of a hand at a target with 20 metres that will cause illusory agonizing pain and cold on contact. Causing the targets body to seize up and spasm.
EXP Gains from plundering the peryton 95% Physical EXP +1 Physical aspect Level! You have received a Quest: Spirit beast Plunder analysis I
By the time he finished reading his vision was blurred slightly, seeing the gains for the fight made it kinda better, he intended to speak up to open his status and spend the stats he had gained, but before he could the window suddenly vanished and he felt a twinge from the tattoo. Then he heard someone speak up behind him, ¡°What happened here?¡± said a deep voice with a mystified and curious inflection. Mike spun around to face the voice but couldn¡¯t make out the person clearly as more than a blur holding a longbow. ¡°Wha-,¡± he started to speak up but the dizziness that had been getting worse the longer he sat here finally peaked. Before he knew it he was pitching forward, his eyes drifting shut, unconscious. Chapter 18 - Crosse Mike''s eyes flickered open again to an unfamiliar setting. He needed to stop doing this. He moved his neck, memories of the fight and passing out right after, facing a stranger with a bow. He tried to lift his right arm but found it restricted. He lifted his head to look down his body, terrified to see it tied to him or shackled, but it wasn¡¯t. His arm had been securely wrapped in a bandage around the shoulder and was currently fastened rather snugly into a sling across his chest. He had another brief moment of panic as he saw that the tattoo wasn¡¯t covering his arm. As he thought of this he saw the dark lines of the tattoo fade into existence around his fingers and fade out again. It was hiding with magic somehow, Minor Illusion again? Or something else. He noticed then that he wasn¡¯t wearing his jacket, just the thin undershirt and the sling around his arm. He reached up with his left hand this time to feel at his head. His fingers touched more bandages, wrapped around his head. He pulled his hand back quickly as he felt a sting from the cut that was still there. No superpowered healing for him, yet. As he flinched from touching the bandage he heard a voice, he tried to spin his body to face it but only managed to turn his head. There was a campfire to his side a metre and a bit away, and sitting across from beside it was likely the person who had found him earlier. He looked like a middle-aged man, late thirties or early forties, his hair was short and blond but speckled rather liberally with grey, especially at his temples. He had light brown eyes and pale skin that had seen enough sunlight to get some colour, but not enough to burn. He spoke but it sounded like gibberish. Not like a language that Mike didn¡¯t understand, but like random sounds and noises that didn¡¯t match together or have any structure at all. They seemed to match his mouth movements but that was it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t understand that, do you speak Gildaic? I understood you before.¡± Mike said, trying to use his left arm to lift himself off the ground, with little success. God having Eight Strength sucked. He ended up just staying lying down, his head falling back. It hit something padded and he turned his head to find his Jacket folded up beneath it. The man¡¯s eyebrows rose, ¡°Aye, I do. Though it is odd to need it with a Human. Do you want some help getting up? You seem to have had a rough time of it.¡± He said with enough of a smirk to show that the understatement was intentional, he spoke with an accent that made him sound rural. Mike wondered exactly how the AI was doing this, it must have done some very odd things to his brain to make him perceive all languages as English, and even give them accents. Ishare had sounded kind of middle eastern, not that Mike had ever had an extended conversation with someone from the middle east. Mike sighed, ¡°You seemed to have helped me plenty already, so I won¡¯t refuse.¡± He raised his hand for the man to help him sit up. The man smiled as he stood and took a few steps around the fire to grasp Mike¡¯s wrist and help him up into a sitting position, Mike had to steady himself on his hand as he felt a brief spell of lightheadedness. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you, and thanks for the first aid, I¡¯m Mike,¡± Mike said as he moved his hand down to grip his palm and shook it, only thinking that he didn¡¯t know if that was a thing here. He was relieved as the man shook back. ¡°My name¡¯s Crosse and it is nice to meet you as well,¡± he said as he let Mike¡¯s hand go, and moved back around the fire a little ways before sitting down. ¡°Even if you be a stranger near my home, capable of taking down a peryton with a knife. Thanks for that by the way, saved me a lot of work hunting and trapping the fucker, not to mention all the arrows it would have taken to take him down. Mike blinked in surprise, ¡°You were hunting the peryton? That seems¡­ brave.¡± The man didn¡¯t seem any different from a middle-aged man on earth, and that bird had been big. ¡°Aye, it¡¯s been causing trouble around my hometown lately, a few hunters like me were sent out in different directions to kill it. The fuckers don¡¯t nest and stay put like most predators their size, they roam around and kill most anything that moves if it is weak enough.¡± the man, Crosse, explained. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t envy you that duty. Was there a reward for taking it down?¡± Mike asked, curious. Crosse tilted his head back and laughed, ¡°A reward, I suppose there can be, you did us a favour, even if it almost killed you.¡± Crosse¡¯s face got more serious after that. ¡°Now I¡¯m not normally a nosy man, but I have to ask how you managed it? You don¡¯t have a bow or anything to bring it down with, yet you managed to get it on the ground long enough to walk up and stab it in the throat with a dagger?¡± Mike¡¯s face tried not to show worry on his face but was saved by his stomach protesting loudly. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind if I go behind one of these trees and get some business done before answering?¡± He said. He needed privacy to open the AI screens and re-equip acting, he suspected that that was his, deception, persuasion and intimidation skills all rolled together. Crosse nodded and reached into the pack at his side, not Mike''s, which Miked now looked around for, and found a foot or so from his left side. As he looked back to Crosse the man was leaning forward to hand him a bundle of leaves. Mike blinked in confusion and took the leaves, as he grabbed them he both realised what they were for and was surprised again. The leaves were made of metal, very thin metal, they had the texture of leaves and as he rubbed the stack of them against each other the moved and bent like leaves too. ¡°Don¡¯t recognize iron-leaf?¡± Crosse asked, looking puzzled. ¡°I¡¯ll explain when I get back.¡± Mike managed to stand by setting his hand against the ground and getting his feet under him. He wobbled up and nodded to Crosse as he made his way towards the nearest tree. After he had walked around its huge trunk he leaned his back against it and took a deep breath. Cross was right, the peryton had almost killed him. If he had chosen any other class he would have been in a better situation to fight it. A Sorcerer likely would have been able to react in with magic in the instant he had seen the danger, and an Elementalist likely would have found a way to use the light magic offensively, not needing to make the desperate move of swapping his skills mid-fight. To start with, why had he been standing in the middle of a wild forest looking around like a buffoon? looking at the pretty lights? He could have swapped to Arcane magic and tried it out instead of standing right in the middle of a fucking spotlight. He had gotten caught up in the long term and missed the short term implications of his choice, again. He took a deep breath, now wasn¡¯t the time to beat himself up, he had to work some things out and he didn¡¯t have a lot of time before Crosse came looking for him. He mentally prodded the AI to show him the quests he had received and the one he had made, one right after escaping and one after killing the peryton.
Quest Log Quest Description Quest Objective Quest Rewards
Active Quests
Survive. You are stranded in the Wilderness, you will need to survive based on your wits and cunning. You have only the supply Ishare left you and the clothes on your back, you must learn to fend for yourself in this wilderness with the help of the AI. Learn to navigate the Wilderness and fend for yourself. Gain 3 skills related to wilderness survival. 0/3 The Navigation system.
Empower Others You wish to share the power you have gained from bonding with the AI and from the experiments of the Elves. This is an admirable task, but beyond your reach for quite some time, to even begin you will need to be a powerful Wizard with a great understanding of many forms of Magic, both Arcane, Elemental and more. Gain enough knowledge to start studying and experimenting with the tattoo. Reach Wizard level 15 ???
Spirit beast Plunder analysis I This world is full of powerful creatures known as Spirit beasts, of the past thousands of years they have evolved with the help of mana, as a non-sapient creature they do not have the same natural resistance to mana as Humans and Elves. This has lead to them adapting to the control of various types and uses of mana, they can simply be larger than the animal of earth or they may have mutated in some way. Some even have direct Spirit ancestry, giving them the ability to use magic as the Elves do. You have killed one of these beasts and plundered it for EXP, giving the AI access to the physical structure of a Spirit beast, kill 2 more and Plunder both Mental and Magical EXP to gain the ability to judge the strength of Spirit beasts, below a certain level.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Kill 2 more Spirit beasts below level 10 and plunder them for Mental or Magical EXP Mental 0/1 Magical 0/1 The Analyze system.
So one to help him get by in the wilderness and one to help him judge the strength of opponents, the ¡®I¡¯ next to the Spirit beast quest suggested it was the first of its kind, perhaps the AI would need another quest like this one for Spirit beasts over level ten. The Quest he had prompted the AI to create wasn¡¯t incredibly useful, but it gave him a goal, Level 15, He wondered how the AI had reckoned that number, under the AI¡¯s standards, was that Ishare¡¯s Wizard Level? It couldn¡¯t be but Ishare was the only wizard he had ever seen and that High Elf Cleric had been significantly stronger than him. He closed the window and this time willed his status and his Skill window open. Spoiler: Status and Skill windows
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 58.2kg
Wizard Level 1
Wizard EXP 40%
Average Level 2
Physical Statistics 2
Level 3
Exp 85%
Strength (STR) 8 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 8 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 10 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 0
Level 1
Exp 65%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 11 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 9 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 10 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 3
Level 4
Exp 10%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 6 (+/-)
Control (CON) 11 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 6 (+/-)
General Points 2
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ? 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Amateur 10
Arcane Logic INT/WIS Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 2
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Even though he had almost died, he had gained as well, the EXP from the peryton had been useful, he was almost level 4 in Physical already and the gain in the Magic aspect was good as well. Again he wondered how the other classes would have gained differently from the fight. He felt like Monk may have been in an almost as bad situation against the peryton, but the Mana breathing may have made him faster and better able to retaliate. He decided to spend his points now, all of them, he didn¡¯t know when he would get time to himself like this again. He put his two Physical stat points into Strength. Not being able to lift himself with one hand had been embarrassing. He thought about the Magic points and the General points. The Magic points could go into a few places, he felt like he didn¡¯t need more Control right now, but he wondered if his low Attunement had had something to do with his inability to sense the offensive uses for Light mana, as well as his rather short sense range. It hadn¡¯t been a problem in the cell because the whole place had been chock-full of Light mana, but here not needing to take one step closer to the nearest source of power could save his life. So he put the Magic points into Attunement. The GP were a different story, he had to make the choice to either bring his Attunement up to the same level as his Control, or he could put them into Endurance to make himself both sturdier and tire slower. He remembered those last few steps towards the peryton as it writhed in false agony, and passing out less than a minute after beating the creature. Endurance. As he decided that something happened that he hadn¡¯t seen before, his Mental EXP went up. A whole 15%, well that either came from Wisdom or Intelligence. Wisdom, if he remembered the descriptions correctly, and as he thought that it ticked up again, 5%, bringing him to 85%. That was likely intelligence, getting EXP for remembering everything correctly¡­ Damn, none for that one. He put the points in Endurance and closed the window, feeling the Magic merge with him fully and change him subtly, making him stronger, more durable, and better at sensing magic. He could sense the Physical stats much better than the magic stats, but with 9 Attunement who could just barely feel something in the back of his awareness. He was running out of time, He had been back here almost 10 minutes now, he quickly swapped Arcane Logic for Acting, He would need it more now, and equipping it meant getting it closer to levelling up. If he played this right he could probably level Language as well. He grabbed a few of the leaves from his hand and rubbed them against the bark of the tree, hoping it would make a noise that sounded like the actual purpose of the leaves. He dropped a few on the ground and went back around the tree to the fire. He had some explaining to do. Chapter 19 - Dinner and Stories Mike walked around the tree holding the hem of his pants as if he had just pulled them up. He looked towards Crosse, who had moved and was across the fire from him now. He was grabbing a bundle that shimmered in the light of the fire, more leaves? As Mike got close he turned around with the bundle in two hands, it was long, flat but thick and was indeed wrapped in leaves, though these seemed more silvery than the ones he had handed Mike. He walked up and placed the object wrapped in the silvery leaves into the edge of the fire on the hot coals. Mike blinked having understood, foil, the leaves were wrapped around something to protect it from the coals and cook the contents. As he thought this he the twinge of a notification from the tattoo, what had he just unlocked? Cooking, it had to be, he hoped it counted towards the three wilderness survival skills he needed. ¡°All done aye?¡± Crosse asked as he got closer. Mike nodded, ¡°Thanks for the leaves, I don¡¯t know what I would have done without them. What are you cooking?¡± for the first time since coming to this dimension, Mike felt hungry. Crosse grinned at the question, ¡°the peryton. I carved off the edible bits after patching you up, it¡¯s a damned shame that I can¡¯t take the whole thing, but standing around a bloody carcass for too long in this forest is a great way to get dead. Almost as bad as passing out next to one.¡± he said, giving Mike an incredulous look. ¡°In my defence, I did manage to kill the thing before passing out, that was a close call for sure though,¡± Mike said as he sat down next to his jacket, he could feel the Pouch of Dark mana gems now. Even stronger than he had during the fight, though not as strong as when he had touched one. There was more than a thousand mana stored in that little pouch, more than he could use if he tried. The spells he had been casting had been costing less than 20 mana most of the time, they weren¡¯t weak though, Chill touch had saved his life. He wondered how much mana the spells that Ishare had been casting cost, or that beam of light that Ailish had hurled. A lot, he imagined, especially for that latter one. ¡°I¡¯m still very curious how you managed that by the way. The way my friends and I manage is by finding it and baiting it into a trap, where we then pelt it with arrows from thirty metres away.¡± He said as he placed another leaf-wrapped slice of bird-deer meat into the fire. ¡°Is it a bird-deer or a deer-bird?¡± Mike wondered out loud as he tried to think of a credible explanation as to how he had killed the massive beast. Crosse huffed a laugh, ¡°the one you killed? A bird-deer. They get progressively more deer as they get older. If you ever see one that is deer-bird, run. Those bastards would rip you apart and hang your intestines on their antlers as an ornament. They don¡¯t fly nearly as much though, so you can hear ¡®em coming before they start screeching at you.¡± The statement didn¡¯t calm Mike any. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, those live further West, closer to the coast, the bigger the beasts get the further east you find ¡®em. Some do wander this way though, so it pays not to let your guard down, which I assume you did. Which is bad, cause the little ones can kill you just fine if you''re dumb. Now how did you kill the thing, no more evading.¡± He seemed to be getting more serious, his accent was thicker and his brow was curving down, it seemed he had enough of the sidestepping. Mike took a deep breath, he needed to tell the hunter something, even if it wasn¡¯t the whole truth. ¡°It kept swooping at me with those screeches, I managed to barely dodge it a few times,¡± He started rolling his right shoulder some, feeling the pain of the hit it had taken with a wince, ¡°but on the last dive it went for me with its antlers, I managed to drop under it and stab with the dagger blindly, I guess it wasn¡¯t expecting that, and I manage to stab it in the neck.¡± Mike stopped, not sure how believable it would be to this experienced hunter. Likely not very, before the hunter could voice his doubts Mike spoke up, ¡°I know it doesn¡¯t make a lot of sense, but there are things I don¡¯t know if I can tell you, I¡¯m not from around here, which I¡¯m sure you guessed, and my memory is all jumbled and blurry,¡± Mike finished again, hoping that the act of telling an obvious lie and then coming out to it with a less obvious one, seeded with truth, would work. Crosse sat for a few moments watching him, ¡°you¡¯re right I don¡¯t believe that first tale, sure you stabbed it in the throat, but if you¡¯d caught it on your knife like that it would have landed on top of you, and if it hadn¡¯t you''d have broken your arm stopping that thing with just a dagger. But I am willing to believe that you aren¡¯t from around here, and that you don¡¯t know your memories right, with all the GIlded folk in this forest I imagine most folks have had a spot of amnesia now and then, isn¡¯t often that they leave someone out here in the wilderness to die afterwards but that''s not unheard of.¡± Crosse explained, looking less suspicious, but still curious. ¡°So what do you remember, and why don¡¯t you speak a lick of Manish? It isn¡¯t like one of ¡®em to go to the effort of erasing an entire Language from someone''s head, they¡¯d have to be at it for weeks unless they were old as the hills¡± He asked, looking even more curious. Mike sighed, glad that the older man had believed him some, he had thought that memory loss might be a believable story, considering his experience. ¡°I don¡¯t remember much, I remember being in a ¡®facility¡¯ they called it, one of the others there told me that they had taken me cause I was unique in some way, but that was later. I couldn¡¯t understand a word when I woke up, but they were there, and they taught me. I learned to speak Gildaic in days, after that they left me alone. ¡°The other prisoner or, maybe test subject, was a Dark Elf, he said that I should go now, that his god demanded it. Then I remember this forest, standing out here with nothing but the clothes on my back and in my pack, and this dagger in my hand.¡± Mike continued, trying to keep some semblance of truth to the tale. Crosse watched and listened as Mike told this part of the story, looking interested at the mention of the facility, and thinking in silence after Mike was done. ¡°Well that is a curious story, a Dark Elf, you don¡¯t see their folk in these parts. So you have no memory of your life before this facility?¡± he asked.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Mike scrunched up his brow, trying to give the impression of effortful recollection, after a few moments he shook his head, ¡°only blurs, nothing that would be useful for surviving on my own in the wilderness.¡± he said. ¡°You said you learned Gildaic in only a few days, that¡¯s a mighty fine feat, I only know it cause my parents taught it to me growin¡¯ up, just in case. Most folks don¡¯t need it as it''s only really used when talking to the Gilded ones, cause they take offence to being spoken to in anything else, or at least the haughty ones do, some don¡¯t care.¡± Crosse explained. ¡°Are they common then? I only saw two in the facility and the Dark Elf, but it was implied that there were more. Yes, I did learn it in a few days, though it was dark and hard to tell time down there. They seemed to imply it wasn¡¯t the only thing I could learn fast as well, but they didn¡¯t teach me anything else.¡± Mike asked hoping to use his amnesia story to start learning the baseline common sense of this world. He had no idea what the social status of the Elves was or their population, he didn¡¯t even know the baseline ethics and morality that this world adhered to. He needed to learn those fast before he committed a faux pas that caused him trouble. Crosse¡¯s eyebrows rose in surprise again, ¡°they did a number on you, didn¡¯t they? No, they aren¡¯t particularly common, especially not this far from the capital, they stick to it mostly, but there are quite a few of them spread out between towns and cities around it. I suppose if you really can¡¯t remember then you don¡¯t know where that is, do you, it¡¯s south of here about a month and a half¡¯s walk.¡± Crosse explained. ¡°That still doesn''t explain how you killed the creature though. So you showed up here with no memories of how, with nothing but the dagger and your clothes? So how did ya get the bugger out of the air? He¡¯d have to have been for you to make the kill you did.¡± Crosse said with a smirk, obviously not having been diverted from his initial goal of inquiry Mike sighed, breaking eye contact by looking down. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to explain it, from what I know it¡¯s impossible and too many people knowing could get me in a lot of trouble. I know you saved me back there, but I still don¡¯t know if I can trust you with that. I don¡¯t know if I got sent here by mistake or if the High Elves put me here on purpose for some reason. ¡°The Dark Elf, I don¡¯t know what he did, just that he mentioned his god, which sounded ominous as hell. So I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t give you a clearer explanation, why are you so curious anyway? Does it matter how I killed it? so long as it is dead.¡± Mike finished, a little out of breath towards the end, his voice had gotten more heated than he had intended. He had been trying his hardest not to dwell on the fact that he was essentially alone in this world, but he had always hated being interrogated, and facing that there had broken down those walls. Crosse had saved him, the second stranger in this strange world to help him, be it for his reasons or pure altruism. But Mike couldn¡¯t know if he could trust him. Ishare had had his angle on things, one that Mike still didn¡¯t understand. He had known that Mike could use Magic. The major thing that separates his kind from Humans, but he had helped him escape, could he have used the shard to escape himself? He had said that the High Elves and Light ¡®couldn¡¯t be allowed to have him¡¯, but what did that mean? Could no High Elf ever be allowed to know of his abilities? Was a god looking to have him somehow? Were multiple? Before he could get any deeper into his internal rabbit hole of anxiety, Crosse spoke up, ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that, you¡¯re right, I¡¯m prying.¡± Mike looked up at him and saw him moving to turn the wrapped stips of meat on the coals. ¡°I have a bit of a personal interest you see, I live in a small village right here in the forest, less than five hundred of us in total. We aren¡¯t the type of people to trade and barter with other settlements. ¡°We all live around one rather old High Elf, though she doesn¡¯t bother us much or us her. About a hundred and fifty years ago our ancestors hear that she was living out here keeping her little section of the forest safe, so they decided to come out here and ask for her sanctuary, they would reasonably serve her and she would protect the town, we would fend for ourselves unless something that we couldn¡¯t deal with came into play.¡± After reaching this point Crosse moved his leather gloved hands and plucked the two pieces of wrapped meat out of the coals. He stood and walked around the fire to place one on the ground in front of Mike, then he pulled out a sheathed dagger, Mikes sheathed dagger, and handed it to him hilt first. Mike took it then watched as Crosse sat down and pulled his knife from a sheath under his padded jacket. Mike hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the hunter¡¯s attire until now, but he seemed rather similarly dressed to Mike, though his outfit seemed more worn. Crosse pulled out his knife, a more utilitarian tool than the one meant for stabbing things that mike had. He used it to cut open the wrapping of leaves, revealing cooked meat on the inside. Smelling the meat for the first time, Mike felt his stomach protest again and, mimicked the action with his knife, though clumsily, using his left hand. He took a deep breath of the meat as he saw Crosse cut off a piece of his cut, skewering it on the end of his knife and bringing it to his mouth. The still-hot leaves spread out beneath the cut of meat to keep it off of the ground. Mike again mimicked him, putting the meat in his mouth. It didn¡¯t, despite his expectations, taste like chicken. No, it was red meat, though, of a leaner kind than Mike was used to, he still chewed it with relish, He couldn¡¯t remember having eaten since lunch the day he was ¡®summoned¡¯. After eating for a few minutes in silence Mike sighed again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for snapping at you, I¡¯m just really on edge. Please continue, I want to know as much as I can about anything, why do you have a personal interest in how I killed the peryton?¡± Crosse smiled at him sideways and continued as requested. ¡°Well the village, named Inaholme, after its most important resident, did fine for the majority of the past century and a half, the old High Elf having only need to intervene with the average folk a few times to turn away a big enough threat. Hunters like myself have been enough to take down wandering pests like the perytons and similar beasts. ¡°But in the last couple of years, something has been changing. We have been seeing a lot more of the aggressive kind of beasts, not that most of them wouldn¡¯t attack you if they saw you alone, but ones like the peryton that are unreasonably aggressive, they are threatening the village in numbers, and if this continues lady Ina might just decide to leave, she hasn¡¯t said so herself, but it''s a pretty common sentiment that if protecting the village became more work than it was worth for her, she would just go somewhere else more peaceful. ¡°If that happens we would be left out here in the forest without our big stick to scare the smaller beasties off. That¡¯s why you see me out here alone hunting the peryton, normally three or four of us would work together to take one down, but I¡¯m one of the most senior so it was just me sent out this way for it. The others have spread out to deal with some lesser threats¡± Crosse explained and Mike had an idea where this was going. ¡°So you want to know how I killed it with just a dagger, cause if you have that or can do it again, then you would be able to help others with their jobs and possibly deal with the problem entirely.¡± Mike had a distinctly unsettled feeling, had he stumbled into a Quest-line? In response to that thought, Mike felt a jolt of pain run up his arm as if it had been swatted, hard, making him yelp in pain. Chapter 20 - Arcane Intuition Crosse started at Mike''s yelp, hopping to his feet and looking around, to see what might have caused his sudden outcry. Mike just glared down at his arm. Life is not a game, Life is not a game, he repeated in his head. These are real people with real problems. Even though those problems do greatly resemble a town in need of help from 3-6 level 1-3 adventurers. In response to that, he felt another pain on his arm, that he could only describe as a slap on the wrist. He yelped again, causing Crosse to look down at him seriously, "Is something wrong?" he asked, looking Mike over. Mike looked up at Crosse, moving his hand to his shoulder to try and imply that it was aching. "Sorry, just a little bit of pain from my injuries," Mike lied. Crosse sighed in relief and sat back down. "You should eat your food and get some more sleep, your wounds need time to recover, your shoulder shouldn''t be too much of a problem by morning, but we need to get you to Inasholme by tomorrow, that cut on your head needs proper healing." Mike blinked. "Healing as in magical healing?" he asked for clarification. Crosse nodded. "I told you we had a High Elf at the Village, we don''t bother her much but for wounds like that she usually isn''t too bothered by healing them. Especially for the hunters," Crosse explained. Mike made a hesitant expression, "I haven''t had good experiences with High Elves, as you know, what if she tells the others where I am?" What if she told their god? Is what Mike was really worried about. Crosse shrugged, "It''s pretty unlikely, she doesn''t approve of that kind of experimentation or manipulation as a rule, and she doesn''t interact with the greater community of their kind much at all, only sending a letter to the Empire to tell them she''s alive every year or so, I don''t know why." "You''ve said she doesn''t interact much with your villagers, but you seem to know quite a bit about her?" Mike asked. Interestingly, Crosse blushed, ¡°you should finish your meat, you need it to help replace all that blood you lost. I¡¯ll wake you in five hours for your watch.¡± Mike just raised his eyebrows at Crosse and smirked a little. He had gotten upset at Crosse for the interrogation, so he wouldn¡¯t press. They finished their meals in silence. Afterwards, Mike lay back on his jacket again, wanting to sleep, a task which had never come easily to him and certainly wasn¡¯t made easier by a sore right shoulder and a gash on the left side of his scalp. He eventually managed to drift off though, thinking of his bed back home. *** Mike was woken by Crosse¡¯s hand on his shoulder, his eyes blinked open to the fuzzy form of Crosse above him and he rapidly started blinking them to clear his vision. After his vision was clear he started to process other things, like that it was still dark, almost pitch dark. Why was he awake again, oh right, the watch. He groggily pushed himself to a sitting position with his left hand, then got a burst of happiness for actually being able to do that, making the numbers go up and all was great, feeling the actual benefits of them was better. ¡°You awake enough to keep watch?¡± Crosse asked clearly. Mike took a second to rub his eyes, he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have some water would you?¡± Mike asked, wanting to wash the sleep taste from his mouth. Crosse nodded and walked around to his pack, he grabbed something from inside and tossed it towards him. Mike barely caught the dark object feeling its smooth softness and weight as he did. Mike blinked down at the object as his eyes still adapted to the darkness. It didn¡¯t take long as he had just been asleep and there wasn¡¯t anything around to break his night vision. A water skin, that¡¯s what Crosse had tossed him. Well of course he had. Mike looked over to Crosse to see him already lying down on his folded up jacket, his chest rising and falling at a slow steady rhythm, lucky bastard, Mike wished he could fall asleep like that. Now Mike was alone in the darkness, he looked up to the sky and found it mostly obscured by the leaves of the enormous trees, branches covered in metal leaves coming together in a canopy that glittered even in this darkness, he pulled the cork out of the hardened mouth of the water skin and drained some into his mouth, swishing it around before swallowing. Mike wanted to create a light as he had done in the darkness of his cell, but when he flicked on his mana sight he saw no light mana, no, the entire forest was layered in a coating of Dark mana, filling the space as the Light mana had back in the dungeon. If actual darkness drew Dark mana like this, why had the cells and the whole dungeon, been full of Light mana? Was it something the High elves had done? Probably, for now, Mike had no way to know. He did have some things to think about though. Was he going to go back to this Inasholme with Crosse? It sounded like they needed help, and maybe the AI would reward him for doing that sought of thing, It didn¡¯t like him to think of his life as a game, but it did give him game like abilities and mechanics that heavily influenced his life. Though from what the AI had explained it didn¡¯t seem like the core aspects of his abilities were unique to him, like EXP and Levels. It seemed like what the AI was doing was parsing that information and presenting it to him in a way that he would understand. He glanced at Crosse again, seeing that he hadn¡¯t moved he willed the AI to make his notification window appear, curious about something.
You have received the Quest:
Quest Log Quest Description Quest Objective Quest Rewards
A village in distress! The Village of Inasholme has noticed increased Spirit Beast activity in its surroundings, causing the villagers to fear for their lives and send out their hunters to deal with the threat before it grows too much to deal with. Investigate the area around Inasholme to find the cause of the increased monster activity ???
You have unlocked the Mental Skill: Cooking Mental aspect Level up! You have gained 2 distributable Mental stats. Congratulations! You have levelled up! You have gained 2 distributable General Points
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 58.2kg
Wizard Level 1
Wizard EXP 60%
Average Level 3
Physical Statistics 0
Level 3
Exp 90%
Strength (STR) 10 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 10 (+/-)Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Agility (AGI) 10 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 2
Level 2
Exp 5%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 11 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 9 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 10 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 0
Level 4
Exp 10%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 9 (+/-)
Control (CON) 11 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 6 (+/-)
General Points 2
So he had been given a Quest! What had it been slapping him on the wrist for then? and why hadn¡¯t he gotten a notification for the level up? He directed the question towards the AI.
The Purpose of the Notification prompts with Sensory Illusion is to communicate to you your progress at a time when using a Minor Illusion window would either reveal the existence and abilities of the AI or would cause more distraction than necessary. Certain situations have been deemed inappropriate for these silent notifications as well: Combat and Dialogue. Though the Lines of the tattoo will still change to display the notification icon (??) and the number of pending notifications.
So it wouldn¡¯t tell him that he had Leveled up during a conversation, but it would slap him on the wrist for thinking outside its bounds of acceptability. Brilliant. Well at least he had levelled up, now he had more points to spend. He did what he had wanted to do but decided against for the GP earlier, he put them into Attunement. For the mental stats, he decided to put them into Perception, because he was supposed to be on the watch, right? More perception couldn¡¯t hurt, though he didn¡¯t think he would again for a while, Intelligence seemed like it was a core wizard stat so future points would likely go there. He closed his windows after that and sat down beside the ring of loose stones that had contained the fire earlier that night, he turned on Mana sight to see if there were any foreign sources of mana around like the jaguar had made back at the facility. He sat there with his attention and alertness up for a while, longer than he expected to before he got bored. Mike had lived in the information age, a time where the idea of sitting around and doing nothing for hours was almost anathema, instead, encouraging continuous stimulus and finding ways creative ways to make things do the sitting and watching for you, so Mike thought about Magic. Could he use magic to alert him if something came to threaten him? At the thought, he felt something in the Dark mana surrounding him, a twinge at the edge of his senses. He stood up and looked around himself, seeing nothing had changed physically. Had his sense reacted to that thought? Could he use Dark Magic to alert him to threats? It happened again, the Dark mana was¡­ reacting for some reason it reacted to something but Mike couldn¡¯t puzzle it out from the tiny twinge of a reaction. He had an Idea. Mike opened his Skills window with a thought towards the AI. Spoiler: Spoiler
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots ? 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Novice 11
Arcane Logic INT/WIS Amateur 1
Cooking PER/DEX Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 2
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
There was a lot of it, not as much as in the Gems that he could still sense in his jacket pocket, but enough to fill one of them, almost 300 mana within the range of his attunement sense.Mike moved the checkmark from Acting to Arcane logic. It was supposed to ¡°allow him to intuit the rules that mana follows¡± maybe that would help here. He was instantly aware of the amount of Dark mana in his surrounding three metres, a metre more than before. Mike felt like he could get more accurate, but that he didn¡¯t quite understand the algorithms that were being done passively in his head enough to get there yet, they were factoring in details of the mana that he didn¡¯t understand. That wasn¡¯t the part of the skill that he was most interested in right now though. He once again thought of using the dark mana to detect when someone was looking at him, he didn¡¯t feel the twinge that time so he made the thought more specific, thinking about using the dark mana to detect when someone hostile was looking at him. This time it reacted, and Mike felt his Arcane Logic latch onto the reaction, Hostility, was Dark mana somehow linked with hostility? Another reaction though weaker. Mike couldn¡¯t read them enough so he reached out with his Control and ran it through the surrounding Dark mana, He requested it to enter his control this time instead of seizing it as he had from the gems in the battle, giving him almost 40 Dark mana under his control. It worked better, the Dark mana manifesting into the mortal realm under his control, forming a cloud around him of spots of pure darkness. Now Mike experimented again, thinking of hostility, but not directing the mana to do anything, it reacted, much more now that he was controlling it, it did have something to do with hostility, but that wasn¡¯t all of it. Mike wondered if feeling actual hostility would give him a better result then simply thinking about it as an abstract. So he tried to feel it, thinking about what he was hostile towards. The High Elves were the first thing that came to mind, they had kept him locked in a cell in a coma for months, trying to pry his memories out of his soul, for what purpose? At that he felt the Dark mana react more strongly, it was¡­ Sympathetic to his hostility? Not in the way that people were sympathetic, but in the way Magic was sympathetic. A very small part of Dark mana was hostility, like illumination and colour were part of what Light mana was. So he channelled that asking it to stay, to tell him if anything hostile towards him could see him. He felt like it could do more, that if he had enough Dark mana he could make it tell him if anyone anywhere felt hostility towards him, but he was far from being able to do something like that. The Dark mana shifted, all of it moving inwards towards his head, briefly obstructing his vision in a way that mana in the Aether never did. Then it was gone and the Notification window shifted to show something new.
You have created the spell:
Spells Mastery Level Requirements Mana Cost Cast Time Duration Description
Hostile Awareness Novice Dark Magic - Amateur 30 Dark mana instantaneous 12 hours or after a total of 10 alerts Create a ward of Dark magic that exists in your mind that will alert you if something or someone with hostile intent towards you currently has a line of sight on you or is within your line of sight.
Yes! The spell had worked, Mike could feel it still, a tight ball of mana just at the edge of his thoughts, ready to bring attention to itself the second something hostile gave him their direct attention. Well, that would handle his watch. He looked towards his still open Skills window, he had an option now, did he want to keep trying Dark magic or put some effort into something more interesting? And possibly more worthwhile. He looked to his Skills window and moved the checkmark from Dark Magic into Arcane Magic. Chapter 21 - Arcane Calculation Mike felt the Dark mana vanished from his attunement sense, replaced by something new. Arcane mana was everywhere. He flicked on his Mana sight as he remembered what the skill description had said about the Arcane mana being filtered out before he could understand what it was. The whole of his vision deepened, it was the only word he could think of to describe it. The Darkness that was already almost impenetrable became as dark as the mana it contained, the grass and fallen leaves littering the ground around him became deep green and brown in turn. Even in the darkness, the last flickering embers that remained in the fire pit burned orange and the ashes surrounding them became a landscape of grayscale. He pivoted where he stood, looking up and around at the forest from this new perspective. The rays of moonlight poking through the trees were deeper, the dim glittering of the golden leaves in the darkness was more visible. As he got used to the change he noticed that he couldn¡¯t see further or in more detail, everything just looked different, but he couldn¡¯t see the Arcane mana. He furrowed his brow and focused, spreading his attunement sense out again as he had let it drop in his surprise at the change to his Mana Sight. The Arcane mana was still there, or at least this new type of mana was, he tried to get the same kind of impressions from it that he got from Light and Dark mana but he felt nothing, He couldn¡¯t describe it, it felt like the same kind of energy as the other mana types, but it didn¡¯t give him those vague sensory cues that let him know how to use it. He focused harder and he felt a pulse from nearby. Turning to face it, he ended up facing where Crosse was sleeping. As he looked at the sleeping man, trying not to feel like a creep, he saw that there was something different about the Arcane mana around him. He carefully took a few steps around the fire pit closer to him, wanting to see if he could tell the difference. After only making it halfway through, he got a notification.
You have unlocked the Skill:
Governing Stats Mastery Max Mastery Description
Stealth AGI PER Amateur Novice Stealth is the act of moving surreptitiously and silently to avoid notice, it is about being aware of your surroundings and moving through them while disturbing as little as possible.
Well, that would come in handy. If he wasn''t wrong, it was also his second skill that was ''related to wilderness survival'', so he only needed one more and he would complete that Quest. For now, he was focused on something else though, he took another careful step towards Crosse and felt his posture change. His knees bent and he felt all of his weight settle on one leg. As he made the step he felt his weight settle down on the outer edge of his foot before he pressed down on the ball of his foot. The disorienting feeling of not being in complete control of his own body caught him off guard. It wasn¡¯t uncomfortable per se, just disorienting, he couldn¡¯t say he liked the feeling much, but he also understood that the AI would likely prefer that he didn¡¯t like it more. As if he didn¡¯t want his body moving on its own then that was only further incentive to learn how to do these things himself, thus progressing the Skills. After taking a few more steps guided by the skill, he also noticed his eyes focusing down towards the ground as he moved, allowing him to avoid stepping on the sparse few large leaves that were there. Weren¡¯t those leaves made of metal? How did the decay like that? A question for after the sun came up. He reached within a few metres of Crosse, the man now fully enveloped by his Attunement sense. Mike felt pulses of mana coming from inside Crosse, they were faint but plentiful. Mike tried to focus on them to understand what was happening but he had an Idea. The AI had said that EXP was Arcane mana, naturally absorbed by his body and given aspects by his soul, these aspects improved him, they were his stats. The AI had also said that all creatures in this realm naturally do this from birth. So it made sense that Humans did it as well. Mike focused his Attunement in on Crosse, trying to use Arcane Logic to sense how much Arcane Mana was actually inside him. His arcane Logic started to Process but hit a wall. Mike paused then tried to devote his thoughts to actually understanding the process of the calculation, focusing his Mana sight on Crosse as well. The calculations were trying to work out how much mana was contained within Crosse''s body, but it reached a certain point and then stopped, and Mike realised what was wrong. There was too much, the Skill description had said that he could sense accurately to the hundreds, meaning no more than a thousand, and Mike was seeing why now. The Skill didn¡¯t have the processing power to do all of the necessary calculations, so it was getting overwhelmed and stopping. That was also one of the reasons why it didn¡¯t give him more specific readings on the amount of mana he was controlling or sensing because in order to get that more specific reading, it would need to do more work, but it didn¡¯t have the ability. So to get more specific or larger reading he needed to do some of the calculations himself, in his head, fast enough for him to be able to put it into the skill and let it use the values he worked out to do the more detailed stuff later itself. So he plunged his awareness into the workings of the skill, trying to catch the parts of earlier parts of the calculations that he could help with. He lowered his body as quietly as possible to the ground until he was sitting on the ground about two metres from Crosses prone form. He hoped that the man didn¡¯t wake up. If he did and found Mike sitting and watching him instead of the dark and potentially deadly forest around them, Mike imagined he would be upset. Now sitting, Mike managed to catch those earliest portions of the calculations. The volume of the Arcane mana in Crosse''s body and its density. Mike couldn¡¯t understand the later portions yet, but if he could work this out himself then he may be able to get an understanding of how it was used. As he started to crunch the numbers he understood why the AI had trouble; mana wasn¡¯t physical, it didn¡¯t have mass, volume or density. It took up space, kind of, but it could compress itself incredibly, like any form of energy could. It was like trying to calculate the water content of a cloud by sight. The Skill had some methods though, it was using calculations made by the AI to measure the potency of a specific density of mana. It was tapped into his Attunement and Control to tiny degrees, feeling the way the mana around him reacted to it and using that reaction to estimate its current density. Then it was comparing that density to that of the current specific focus of his Attunement sense or Control. For volume, it simply had to use the physical volume of the space that the mana was occupying. He felt it tapping into portions of itself that had static numbers for the density of air, flesh, blood, bone, wood, metal. It was using these and measurements it had obtained of Crosse passively through his perception, though those weren¡¯t 100% accurate either. If this one skill was using so many of his stats to function, why had it only listed two stats as its ¡®Governing Stats,¡¯ Intelligence and Wisdom? He could see why the higher his intelligence the better the skill would function because it was using his memory and processing power to do these maths and get the data it needed for input. He wondered if his Wisdom stat was what made his revelation about Dark mana possible. The other times he had made spells it was because the AI had given him enough hints to work out the answer, using the Minor Illusion and Sensory Illusion spells as ways to communicate to him that those mana types could be used that way. After doing the crunching Mike was able to feel the Skill take his results and add them into its further calculations. It did its job much faster than he had, the advantages of being a magical construct. After thinking that, Mike realised something. He could sense his Skill. It was made of Arcane mana, it was like a spell that was seamlessly integrated into the process of his thoughts. He focused his attunement sense on his head, trying to sense the arcane mana that it contained. He sensed the portion of that mana that was active right now as the Skill returned the answer to the amount of arcane mana that Crosse had inside of him.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. More than 2700 and less than 3000 Arcane mana was contained in Crosse''s body. As the Skill returned that result he felt that active cluster of Arcane mana in his head change. It shed two tiny pieces of itself, letting one dissolve into arcane mana and run deeper into his mind. He felt the other zip away from his sense to elsewhere in his body. He paid attention to the first, following it as it shifted shape and purpose as it melded into another gathering of arcane mana, also in his head. He started to speak, wanting to see his status window. Before he could, he felt a packet of Arcane mana zip into his head from somewhere else in his body, it joined that pool of arcane mana that the first had melded with but remained distinct from it, giving him an impression that no Arcane mana had so far. It seemed to pulse with a purpose that said ¡®Mental¡¯. Then he heard the ding of a notification.
Congratulations! Your Wizard Class has Levelled up! You have gained 1 distributable Mental Stat and 1 distributable Magic Stat. Spoiler:Status Window
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 58.2kg
Wizard Level 2
Wizard EXP 0%
Average Level 3
Physical Statistics 0
Level 3
Exp 95%
Strength (STR) 10
Endurance (END) 10
Agility (AGI) 10
Dexterity (DEX) 10
Mental Statistics 1
Level 2
Exp 50%
Intelligence (INT) 15
Wisdom (WIS) 11
Perception (PER) 11
Willpower (WIL) 10
Magic Statistics 1
Level 4
Exp 35%
Affinity (AFI) 16
Attunement (ATU) 11
Control (CON) 11
Resistance (RES) 6
General Points 0
He read the screen noticing that not only had his Wizard Class gained a level but he had gained mental EXP as well. So that was how Skills gave him EXP, they were spells of very dense Arcane mana that interfaced with him seamlessly, and that allowed them to transfer the part of the mana that he had comprehended in levelling up the Skill into EXP. In a sense, his Skills levelling up made them weaker but it made him stronger. Mike wished he had levelled up his Mental aspect just now, or that he had followed that other little bit of arcane mana as it zipped away. He wanted to see what it was like for one of his aspects to level up. Thinking that, he flicked his eyes to his Status window, he was only five per cent from levelling up his Physical aspect. He remembered that he had only had ninety per cent EXP the last time he saw his Status, gaining a skill given him EXP as well then? What was a Physical Skill that he could easily unlock? That was easy, Mike looked to Crosse and then stood up as quietly as he could, putting his hand to the ground and hopping his feet up under him. He then used the foreign reflexes granted by the Stealth Skill to make the distance. Sadly the Skill didn¡¯t level up. He paid attention to what happened to the illusory Status window as he grew distant from it, though after he was three metres away from it, it simply dissolved as it did when he dismissed it. He hadn¡¯t been paying enough attention to notice that before. Once he was a good distance from Crosse he turned to face their camp. Well, the fire pit and Crosse, it was hardly a camp. Then he made a similar pose to what knife fighting had taught him and punched with one fist forward into empty air.
You have unlocked the Skill:
Governing Stats Mastery Max Mastery Description
Unarmed Combat STR END Amateur Novice The Unarmed Combat skill Teaches you how to use your body as a weapon, and how to defend yourself while Unarmed. At amateur levels it will teach you how to stand, block and take a hit, only attacking when certain of landing a hit.
Physical aspect Level up! You have gained 2 Distributable Physical Stats.
Physical Statistics 2
Level 4
Exp 15%
Strength (STR) 10 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 10 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 10 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
He heard the faint ding of the expected notification but was focusing on his Attunement sense. He tried to sense the arcane mana in his body. He didn¡¯t know where his physical skills were stored but the AI had told him to touch the tattoo to the chest over the heart to gain Physical EXP from the Plunder system. So he focused his Attunement sense on his heart and sensed the pool of Arcane mana already there, in less than a second he felt a pulse of Arcane mana move down his spine, and pause behind his heart. It moved forward and melded into that pool in his heart. Then the whole pool shifted, it formed together into four separate portions. Three of them pulsed with intent, something similar to the impressions that he had gotten from mana in the past. One gave him the distinct impression of strength, one speed, and the last toughness. The Three pulsing packets of mana seemed as if they were about to dissipate outwards, but Mike felt something he didn¡¯t expect. his whole spine let off a flash of Arcane magic, similar to what he had felt from his skill. In response the three packets changed, the Impressions he got from them changed. Two of them changed to give him the impression of ¡®Physical¡¯ while the third was drawn towards his spine and melded into the spell that had activated there. Leaving the two ¡®Physical¡¯ Bundles behind. The last part of the four seemed to still just be Arcane mana leftover from the transformation of the pool into the three packets. After this process was finished Mike just stood for a moment trying to process. Ok, so he had unlocked Physical Combat, which had sent that pulse of Arcane mana into his heart. That had started the level up, which had been the transformation of his EXP, the mana, into those three magic packets that felt like spells that would grant him stats. But then a spell on his spine had interacted with those three packets, taking one of them for itself, and making the other two into different kinds of spells. He looked at the Notification. It had made them into distributable stat points, like the ones he had gained for levelling up his class, or all of the stat points he had gained in the past. They had been stat points before, but not the kind that he could spend, they would have automatically merged with the aspect that they had originally resonated with. The AI had interfered with that process though, or at least a spell that the AI had left behind had. Now he had two stat points that he could put into whichever of the four physical stats he wanted. What had it done with that extra point then? Did that mean that he was getting one fewer stat points per level than everyone else? Mike was mystified. He had learned a lot about what Arcane mana and Magic was, but he had been left with more questions. He supposed it was called Arcane mana for a reason. Chapter 22 - Sunrise Mike sighed, after watching the Level up process he had been sitting down on the opposite side of the fire pit to Crosse for almost an hour, trying to sense the amount of Arcane mana in his own body. He had had little success. The only reasons he could come up with as to why, were that; his body had a lot more Arcane mana in it than Crosse¡¯s did, or that all of the spells that the AI had left throughout his body, which he had a hard time sensing when they weren¡¯t actually active, were messing with his reading. He figured it was most likely both and decided to move on. He opened his Status Window in front of him.
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 58.2kg
Wizard Level 2
Wizard EXP 0%
Average Level 3
Physical Statistics 2
Level 4
Exp 15%
Strength (STR) 10 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 10 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 10 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 1
Level 2
Exp 50%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 11 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 11 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 10 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 1
Level 4
Exp 35%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 11 (+/-)
Control (CON) 11 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 6 (+/-)
General Points 0
He wanted to feel what spending the points felt like, he thought if he could get a grasp on that then he may have a way to properly use arcane mana. So he thought about his current distributable points, which were actually quite plentiful. He had two Physical stats and one for both mental and magical. He wasn¡¯t too sure what to do with any of them; for the first time, it didn¡¯t look like his status had any glaring deficiencies. His lowest stat was resistance, but he had yet to use it or any of its related Skills, even though he had two, would this extra stat point that he got from his class be best put to use raising it to seven? Or should he put it in Control, the actual Core stat of the Wizard Class. Out of curiosity, Mike willed the AI to bring up the descriptions of his Resistance Skills.
Governing Stats Mastery Max Mastery Description
Light Magic Resistance RES AFI Amateur Journeyman Light Magic Resistance is the learned reaction of the Soul to specifically resist Light Magic. Equipping it will add its Skill Level to the Resistance stat when receiving hostile effects of Light Magic and allow you to sense but not control Light mana.
Dark Magic Resistance RES AFI Amateur Novice Dark Magic Resistance is the learned reaction of the Soul to specifically resist Dark Magic. Equipping it will add its Skill Level to the Resistance stat when receiving hostile effects of Dark Magic and allow you to sense but not control Dark mana.
Interestingly his Max Mastery for Light Magic Resistance was higher by a stage, he wondered why. With the sarcasm out of the way, the skills seemed pretty useful honestly; if he was going to be fighting someone who used either of these kinds of magic but didn¡¯t want to use their brand of magic personally, for whatever reason. In fact that was a path to unlocking types of magic that he didn¡¯t have. If he managed to get their Resistance skills then he could use them to sense the mana types and possibly unlock the Control Skills. Well they seemed a lot more useful than he had assumed; if he was going to utilize that method of unlocking he would need a higher base Resistance so he would put this point into it for now. The points only applied after he closed the window so he went up to the Mental aspect next. He felt pretty good just putting this point into wisdom straight away, three of his four Mental Skills relied on Wisdom and upping it would likely help train them. For physical it was more of a question, he had two points and could see putting both in either Agility or Strength. Agility felt like the right choice because two of his Physical Skills were primarily relient on it and he had seen how useful that was while learning studying Arcane Logic. He nodded, Agility it was. Having assigned all of his points he focused on his head with his Attunement sense, then closed the window. He felt a spell that seemed to cover the entirety of his brain come to life. It sent it a pulse through the part of his head that contained the stat point and Mike sensed it change. Its generic impression of ¡®Mental¡¯ changed to ¡®Wisdom¡¯. The new impression that it had seemed to resonate with part of him, a part that he couldn¡¯t sense or feel. The Stat point started to dissolve, quickly fading from his awareness as he tried to process what it was doing. He lost track of it before he could completely understand what was happening, but it was another data point. He still wasn¡¯t sure exactly how to do it but he felt like he knew what Arcane magic could do. It seemed like arcane magic improved and altered other things somehow. He didn¡¯t quite understand how though, he absorbed it and some reflex of his soul made it change in order to make him better in specific ways. The AI had found a way to counteract that reflex, letting him choose how the improvements were gained instead. The AI had said in the Skill description that Arcane magic could ¡®temporarily increase mental ability.¡¯ From what he had found from Dark magic, these hints in the description weren¡¯t the entirety of the Skills capabilities even at this level, though he was sure that he had barely scratched the surface of the use he had found on his own.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Mike decided that this was likely enough studying around with Arcane magic for tonight. He had wanted to get it to level, but his inability to actually cast a spell with it seemed to be hampering that. He felt that this likely had to do with its governing stats; they were Affinity and Control, not Attunement. The Control skill let him sense the mana types but that wasn¡¯t their main purpose, so getting better at sensing the mana wouldn¡¯t level them up. He opened his Skills window.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Stealth ? AGI/PER Amateur 1
Unarmed Combat STR/END Amateur 1
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting ? WIS/WIL Novice 11
Arcane Logic INT/WIS Amateur 3
Cooking PER/DEX Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 3
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 1
He looked it over and moved the checkmark for from Arcane Magic to Dark Magic. He had understood something new about that element tonight and wondered if he could incorporate it into the spells he already had for it, the ability to sense hostility might make him capable of not letting his spells affect allies, which would be a huge boon if he ever worked out how to add elements together for spells, a fireball that didn''t harm allies would be amazing. Once he had the ability to cast Fireballs at all of course. So he started Practising. *** Mike had just cast Chill touch for the 40th time that night as he saw light peeking through the trees to the east. Well, he assumed it was to the east, this planet might rotate in the opposite direction to Earth, which would make it the west. He had had a productive night finding a new use for Dark Magic, which was already his most useful Magic type and studying Arcane Magic as much as he could. He wasn¡¯t too let down by not working out how to use it immediately, it seemed like it was a very important part of how this world functioned, and he wasn¡¯t going to learn how it worked in just a few hours. As he walked towards the camp from where he was standing he looked around at the mana in his surroundings. He hadn¡¯t felt any real fatigue from casting magic for almost three hours, only pausing every now and again to consider how he could alter his method of casting and drink some of the water that Crosse had left him. He had found it rather difficult to incorporate the Hostility sensing aspect of Dark mana into Chill Touch. Every time he thought of the name the AI had given the spell he couldn¡¯t help put feel amused he hadn¡¯t had time to think about it after the fight, due to immediately passing out. But of course it was Chill Touch; even though it didn¡¯t do any actual cold damage and didn¡¯t require touch, what else would it be? When he had first tried, it simply hadn¡¯t worked. No spell at all. After casting it a few more times and dismissing and re-casting Hostile Awareness he realised that it had to do with mana cost. Hostile Awareness was a costly spell by his standards, which were the only standards he currently had, it was his most expensive spell at 30 Dark mana. Chill touch only used 20, and that meant that trying to cast Chill touch with the ability to recognize hostility built-in didn¡¯t work. So he had tried using more mana, but he found a limit. He couldn¡¯t Control more than just over 50 mana at a time. This meant he could control enough to cast each spell individually, but it seemed that making them work together was not quite as easy as 20 mana + 30 mana = 50 mana. So he had started his experimenting, He had been casting both spells continuously, seeing if he could make them cost less mana. He had eventually succeeded, managing to lower the mana cost for Hostile Awareness down to 20 mana by specifying how long he wanted it to keep him aware of hostility for. Which hadn¡¯t been as easy as requesting it make him aware of hostility for 4 hours or 6 hours? No that didn¡¯t affect the spell at all. He had eventually managed to make it last ¡°until dawn¡± but that had only saved him 5 mana. He figured from that working that he had to give it a timeframe that related to it somehow. Like the sun rising and getting rid of the darkness. He had found that the finest way to give it a timer was through a number of blinks. Which had involved sitting and counting how many times on average he blinked in a minute, which wasn¡¯t fun without a clock or someone else to count seconds, also complicated by the fact that when he was thinking about blinking he tended to do it less. He had eventually come down to an estimate of between eighteen and twenty times a minute, which had then required him to calculate the number of blinks in an hour and so on. He had managed to get the spell to last an estimate of 8 hours by requesting it last 9600 blinks. This had reduced the cost of the spell down to 20 mana, though interestingly he couldn¡¯t get it to go any lower, requesting it to last any shorter than 9000 blinks just made the spell fail and there wasn¡¯t a cost difference between 9000 blinks and 9600. After going through that he had managed to finally cast the combined spell. He pulled up the spell description to see what had changed after all that.
Spells Mastery Level Requirements Mana Cost Cast Time Duration Description
Chill Touch Novice Dark Magic - Amateur 20-50 Dark mana instantaneous 30 seconds after contact Emit a blast of Dark Magic in the form of a hand at a hostile target within 20 metres, that will cause illusory agonizing pain and cold for 30 seconds on contact. Causing the targets body to seize up and spasm. This spell will pass through non-hostile targets and cause no effect as if they were not there.
Perfect! So he now had a non-lethal spell that would only affect hostiles if he so chose and it would just completely ignore friendlies. This would be useful in a chaotic situation or if he ever started fighting with others, if he ever managed to make an area of effect version of this spell it would be even better, but he felt like he would need higher stats for that given his current cap on mana control. He glanced up towards the camp and brought up his Skill window.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Stealth ? AGI/PER Amateur 1
Unarmed Combat STR/END Amateur 1
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 11
Acting WIS/WIL Novice 11
Arcane Logic ? INT/WIS Amateur 3
Cooking PER/DEX Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 2
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 2
Light Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Dark Magic Resistance RES/AFI Amateur 1
Arcane Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 1
He moved the checkmark from Arcane Logic into Acting, he would need it more right now, he had been able to cast just fine without it before. Though it was useful for experimenting with and studying his spells. He was happy to see another level in Dark magic as well. Mike closed both windows and made his way back to the camp, as he got closer he saw that Crosse was already blinking rapidly in the early morning light, clearing his eyes before sitting up and looking around. His gaze focused on Mike for a second then continued on as he looked around, only after he had looked all around himself did he relax slightly with a sigh that progressed into a yawn. Mike felt the urge to yawn as well in sympathy, his mouth widening with the involuntary action. ¡°Good morning,¡± Mike said as he reached the camp. Moving to sit down beside the ring of stones that had housed the campfire. ¡°Mornin¡¯,¡± Crosse replied gruffly. ¡°See anything during the night?¡± Mike shook his head, ¡°it was quiet.¡± ¡°Good, ready for a long day? I want to eat and change the dressing of that wounds of yours then be out of here.¡± Mike felt a wince of pain from the wound on his head. He had been ignoring the ache from it all night but having his attention called to it didn¡¯t help. ¡°As ready as I¡¯ll ever be,¡± Mike replied. To go on a journey in an alien land full of Magic, monsters and who knew what else, Mike finished in his head, excitement, wonder, curiosity and sheer terror boiling within. Chapter 23 - Beginning of a Journey ¡°You got anything to eat in that pack of yours? The meat won¡¯t be great by now.¡± Crosse said, interrupting Mike''s contemplation. Mike nodded and reached to his pack, he opened it up and dug through it to find the oiled leather sack that had contained the rations, ¡°There isn¡¯t much, so I hope that town of yours is close.¡± Mike said before putting the rations bag down and opening it up to check inside. Crosse nodded as he shimmied around the camp to sit near the bag for some food, ¡°then after we are done here we¡¯ll go and meet up with another of the village hunters before making our way back to the Inasholme, we should be there before dark though.¡± He explained. ¡°You said that this Lady Ina, the High Elf, could heal my wound for me?¡± He asked as he too grabbed something from the bag, he looked down to see what it was but wasn¡¯t sure even after inspection, he bit into it as he saw Crosse do, and it tasted vaguely meat-like, but mostly just chewy. Crosse nodded with a small smile after swallowing, ¡°grow the hair you lost back too if you¡¯re lucky. If not though you¡¯ll just have a line of bare scalp, which won¡¯t last too long, and you look like you could use a shear up there anyway.¡± Mike nodded agreement as he swallowed, ¡°what else can she do? You said she protects the village from bigger threats, I don¡¯t see her doing that with healing.¡± Mike inquired, curious about the actual capabilities of this elder Elf. Crosse nodded his smile gaining some excitement, ¡°she does indeed, though I couldn¡¯t tell you how. From what I have seen she tends to cook the fuckers to death in beams of sunlight most often. Though I have heard that in the past she has shined light on the trees to make them grow stakes and skewer them too. She tends to use that for building things more than killing things though, as you will see in the town.¡± Well, that certainly sounded impressive. ¡°You said before that she was old, and you said that the village was founded around her more than a hundred years ago. How old is she, exactly?¡± Mike asked, not having bitten the tough meat again. One of Crosse''s brows rose, amusement clear on his face, ¡°How in the realms would I know, you don¡¯t ask a lady her age no matter her race. She was old enough to break away from that empire of theirs generations ago, and is old enough now that they leave her alone about it.¡± Mike frowned slightly. ¡°It''s more that I want to know what the Elves consider to be old, I¡¯m working on faulty memories, remember?¡± he reluctantly bit into the piece of ¡®food¡¯ and started chewing again, he wished he had some of that peryton meat still, it was better than this by a mile. ¡°Ahh, I see, sorry. It¡¯s not something we talk about, as a rule, it makes most of us feel small and some of us feel jealous. Neither are good things to dwell on. The Elves, at least the ones in this forest, I couldn¡¯t tell you about the ones in the mountains and elsewhere, live until they die, or so I have heard them say.¡± Mike blinked in surprise. ¡°So they are immortal?¡± Mike asked, Elves were usually long-lived, but rarely just flat out immortal. ¡°No. This here is theMortalrealm, everything here dies. For the elves you just have to put something pointy in them for it to happen, they don¡¯t just keel over after a set amount of time alive. As reasonable creatures do.¡± That seemed to be the end of the conversation as Crosse said, ¡°I want to be out of here before the sun is over the mountains. Especially with the state you¡¯re in, we aren¡¯t going to be moving fast.¡± Mike blinked at the measurement of time, could there be no standard measurement for the time in this world? That might be why the Magic hadn¡¯t had a concept of it either. Did the way people thought about things here affect Magic? It was a wild guess and he would need to keep paying attention. After they had finished Crosse pulled over his pack and grabbed a cloth satchel out of hit, ¡°alright let''s see that wound,¡± he said. Mike sat very still as Crosse came over to him and pulled a pair of scissors out of the satchel, he began to cut through the bandages that had been wrapped around Mike''s head all night and most of yesterday. After he pulled the bandages away, giving Mike a glimpse of red andgreenon the inside of the bandages that made his stomach turn, he wadded up the bandages and threw them into the empty fire pit. ¡°Good, the stitches are still intact,¡± Crosse said pulling some new items out of the satchel, one appeared to be a small metal flask, the other just looked like a clean cloth. Mike blinked in surprise, not wanting to move any and disturb Crosse¡¯s work. ¡°You gave mestitches,¡± Mike asked, he hadn¡¯t known exactly what the Hunter had done, but it had certainly helped. Had the hunter performed minor surgery on him? ¡°Of course I gave you stitches, you were bleeding all over the place, what did you think I would do, let you bleed out? That¡¯d be a waste, anyone who kills a beast, however, you managed it, deserves better than that.¡± he pulled the cork from the bottle and put the cloth to it tipping it over and wetting the spot on the cloth with the contents. ¡°What was the green stuff on the bandages?¡± Mike asked, hoping the older man didn¡¯t reply pus, Mikehatedpus. ¡°A salve for numbing your pain, you didn¡¯t think that the huge gash on your head just felt a lot better all on its own did you?¡± Crosse asked sardonically. Mike made an embarrassed face, he hadn¡¯t even thought about it. ¡°You¡¯re as bad as the younger hunters. They get cut up and healed only to get scraped up again the next day. A piece of advice from an elder, don¡¯t count on healing. Don¡¯t even count on medicine, try not to get bloody injured in the first place, you¡¯ll live longer, not as long as an Elf, but longer. Now, this is going to hurt, stay still.¡± Crosse grabbed the back of Mike¡¯s head using the hand with the flask still held between some fingers and dabbed the wet patch against what mike assumed was his wound.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Mike felt an immediate burning pain from the area and that he had touched, making an involuntary groan of pain in his throat. Of course, the flask had alcohol in it! How else was he going would he disinfect it? Antibiotics? As Mike had that thought he felt a twinge and then another more pronounced one from his right arm, oh so this didn¡¯t count as a conversation? Was it because Crosse wasn¡¯t looking him in the face? Another dab and more pain and Mike was distracted again, he just sat and tried to remain still as Crosse cleaned the rest of the cut, it was stinging pretty bad by the end. ¡°There you go, now I can put the salve on and wrap you back up. You can probably take that sling off too, the bruise on your chest was bad but nothing seemed broken.¡± Mike nodded, sighing in relief. He sat still as Crosse rubbed in the salve and wrapped his head in a new layer of bandages, he then untied the sling from behind Mike¡¯s neck and Mike hesitantly stretched out his arm, it was stiff and his shoulder and chest were still sore, but it wasn¡¯t debilitating, he needed to find a time to check the notification. Crosse stood up, ¡°Well now that that''s done, excuse me for a bit and we¡¯ll be off.¡± Crosse went to his bag and grabbed out a few of those leaves that he had given Mike last night then walked towards one of the big trees. Well, that was convenient. As soon as Crosse was behind the tree trunk Mike willed his notifications to appear.
You have learned the Skill:
Governing Stats Requirements Mastery Max Mastery Description
Medicine INT WIS 15 INT Amateur Novice Medicine is the Skill for recognising sickness and injury in humanoids and giving able care to those who need it. It will help you memorize medical facts and remember those you have forgotten. With this skill equipped you will be able to tell a person''s vital signs accurately whenever you try. At amateur levels, this Skill will teach you first aid and proper procedure for emergency care.
You have completed theQuest: Survive. You were stranded in the wilderness with no aid and attacked by a deadly Spirit beast, but after defeating it you were left helpless. To your luck, you encountered a hunter with good intentions and an inclination to like anyone who kills a Spirit beast, especially one threatening his home. Through your understandings from Earth and some aid from this stranger, you have gained three Skills relating to wilderness survival. This reward doesn¡¯t mean you shouldn¡¯t gain more but will aid you in your journey from here on. Reward: The Navigation system This system provides you with a compass that you can view as either an illusion projected by the AI or as a part of the tattoo on your arm. It will show you the 4 cardinal directions at all times, but can also be used to track locations, objects and people. To track an object simply touch it once with the hand marked by the tattoo, the AI will mark it and keep track of it in relation to you. To track a person is a little harder, they will need to either be willing and aware of your intentions, or unconscious. If either of these is the case then the method to implement it is the same, touch their skin with the hand marked by the tattoo. The number of items and people you can mark this way is limited and shares a pool. You can track up to 3 people and items in total, this will grow with your Class level. Marks will vanish if the Item marked is destroyed or the person marked dies. Locations are Different. You can track the position of as many locations as you like, so long as you have an accurate understanding of their position in relation to yourself. This means finding an adequately detailed and accurate map or actually going to that location. Random teleportation such as that utilised by way of the Shard of Desire will make all saved Locations inaccurate until you can reestablish accurate knowledge of your current location.
Yes! So he had learned the Medicine Skill while Crosse had been treating him, likely when he remembered that Alcohol was a disinfectant. Mike closed the window as he thought about the new Navigation system. It wasincrediblyuseful but wasn''t game-breaking just yet. Mike pulled back the sleeve of on his right arm where the AI had been concealing the tattoo with a spell. Which he still hadn¡¯t worked out how to do. He looked at the back of his hand and the AI retracted its spell to show him the intricate dark lines of the tattoo that ran over the back of his hand, crisscrossing and moving in a way that still seemed too three dimensional. As he looked, the lines shifted. They seemed to part and a circularobjectseemed to rise from the depths of the lines growing larger as it grew closer. Mike had to blink to refocus his eyes, the tattoo wasweirdand he felt like he would get a headache if he looked at it too long. When he was done he looked back down at his had and saw that there was now a compass tattooed there. He inspected it, seeing the cardinal directions marked with their traditional N, E, S, W. With the sub directions in between like always, and even marks for degrees like around the edge of the clock. Mike had never actually used a compass to navigate. Why would he in the age of satellite maps and navigation apps? But this seemed like it would definitely come in handy. He reached down and grabbed his jacket from the ground and slid it on. Then reached in and willed the AI to put a marker on the pouch of gems full of Dark mana that he could still sense. He then packed up the rations and put them in his pack, marking the pack with the ability as well. If he had a chance he would Mark Crosse¡¯s bow, he felt like it was likely never far from the man and he wouldn¡¯t be getting his permission for marking any time soon. As he thought so he heard Crosse coming around the tree that he had vanished behind in a similar way that Mike had last night. ¡°You ready?¡± he called out. Mike slung the pack over his shoulder, wincing as its weight landed on his bruise. He then nodded. ¡°Ready for the journey.¡± Chapter 24 - The First Leg Mike followed behind Crosse as he walked through the forest. They had been walking for a good few hours now and Mike was starting to feel the limits of his body. He wondered how his stats interacted with the fact that he was currently underweight and had little in the way of a proper diet for months. He didn¡¯t know what the High Elves had done to keep him alive but he doubted they had given him an IV. Did this mean that his stats weren¡¯t giving him their full potential boost at the moment? He''d started with abysmally low Physical stats, and had assumed that was because of his physical state after the coma. However, even after he had started putting stats into physical just to get by, he hadn¡¯t felt particularly better, sure he felt stronger and had more endurance but did ha have the same endurance as an average person in this state? As he thought of all this he looked around. The trees had maintained their massive stature and distant uniform spacing as they had walked. They were headed north-west, according to the compass on the back of his hand. ¡°So what other threats were the other hunters sent to deal with?¡± Mike asked as he trudged behind Crosse. ¡°Mostly reports of some lower threat beasts. The one we are heading towards now was at a source of herbs that some of the village girls pick for the Lady''s use. They reported seeing a tree-sap ooze. A pest that comes from inside an old gild-leaf tree if it is damaged enough.¡± It took Mike more than a few seconds to stop himself from thinking of the creature as a slime because he knew the AI would have a go at him for that. ¡°So how do you usually deal with these monsters?¡± Mike asked, curious, oozes were common in games, but he had no idea how a creature like that would actually live. ¡°Fire,¡± Crosse replied. ¡°Tree-sap oozes are incredibly weak to fire, a single spark will burn them into a stain on the ground. So we give the hunter access to arrows that can be lit and shot from a distance.¡± Mike smirked, ¡°That seems to be the answer for a lot of things.¡± ¡°Gods damn right it is. You shouldn¡¯t ever get close enough to something that can kill you if you don¡¯t have too, and the lot of us all have these,¡± he said holding up his already strung bow. ¡°So we don¡¯t have to.¡± Mike hadn¡¯t seen the man string it. He must have done it while Mike wasn¡¯t paying attention. Which wouldn¡¯t have been hard, he had been struggling just to keep up at some points. Crosse started to slow his pace. ¡°We are almost at the area that Connor intended to fight the thing, keep your eyes open. Just in case he hasn¡¯t found it yet, just like the peryton, if you''re dumb, even this can kill you.¡± Crosse said glancing back at Mike with a smirk. Mike nodded, even with the prodding, it was sound advice. They started to walk slower, looking all around them as they moved. It wasn¡¯t until after a few minutes that Mike realised that Crosse was making no almost no sound at all, his steps were silent and his breath and the rustling of his clothes seemed to blend into the ambient noises of the forest. Mike tried to mimic him and felt the stealth skill guiding his movements. He stepped where Crosse did and tried to listen to his surroundings. Once he felt like he had the movements down, he started to look around himself. After they had walked around the area for what felt like ten minutes Crosse stopped and Mike stopped with him. ¡°Somethings up, we should have seen Connor by now, or the beast if he didn¡¯t kill it. He wouldn¡¯t have gone back to the village already, I told him to wait for me here.¡± Crosse said under his voice, he was either explaining to Mike or remarking to himself. Either way, he seemed wary. Mike looked around himself trying to find what was wrong. As he had been doing this, he turned on his Mana Sight and panned back over the surroundings watching mana flow through the world around him, separated from it in the Aether. Then he saw something in his periphery. A golden bloom brighter than the leaves of the trees usually maintained. As he looked at it his Hostile Awareness Spell sent cold shivers through his mind, reminiscent of fear and adrenaline but more detached. ¡°It''s above us!¡± Mike shouted pointing toward the spot and as he looked back at the hunter he saw that he already had an arrow nocked and his bow drawn. Right before the arrow fired he heard a clicking sound from the hunter¡¯s hand and the head of the arrow blazed into fire. Mike watched as the arrow shot forward in a streak of red. Fire mana! Mike thought he had been too out of place last night to look into the campfire and see it, but he was sure it had been there. Now it was here, following the blazing arrowhead as it sailed towards the thing among the metal leaves. Mike was briefly worried that it would start a forest fire but then he thought about the golden leaves and their metallic nature, were they even flammable? The arrow sailed through them and hit something but didn¡¯t seem to stick. Mike heard it thud against something and then fall towards the ground still lit. Crosse looked confused for a second and Mike looked back to the spot of brighter Golden mana, which he supposed he could probably call its actual name. The AI had hinted at it enough for him to know, and the leaves kinda gave it away. The Metal mana that glowed over the leaves deepened further, Mike¡¯s Hostile awareness still blaring at him that he was being watched. ¡°Whatever it is it¡¯s still up there,¡± Mike said, causing Crosse to glance at him sideways. At that moment the leaves rustled as something came hurtling down at them from the point following almost the exact trajectory of the arrow and coming just as fast. This thing, however, was the size of a person and seemed to be made of solid gold. ¡°Dodge!¡± Crosse shouted, immediately following the call by jumping almost 3 metres from his standing position. Mike, much less nimble, jumped back less than a metre and a half as the huge golden spike slammed into the ground where Crosse had been standing. The ground shook under Mike''s feet. Dirt filled the air around the impact and after a second of it clearing Mike was able to see the creature. There was now a golden spike almost half as tall as he embedded into the ground about 2 metres from him. ¡°Get back, it¡¯s a golden-sap ooze, not a tree-sap ooze!¡± As he spoke Mike saw the Golden nimbus around the spike shrink into two points, they were side by side with about 30 cm between them, and both were facing him. Seeing what the ooze had already done, Mike decided not to run, if he was right¡­ He turned sideways moving his body into the gap between those to points and stepping forward.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The two points of Metal mana erupted outward and became 3 metre long spikes of death that missed Mike¡¯s stomach and back by centimetres and overlapped at the spot where Mike had been standing. Suppressing the shudder of fear that his mind tried to send through him, Mike looked back at the ¡®Ooze¡¯ it was still a huge spike sticking out of the ground but the metal magic aura that surrounded it in the Aether had surrounded it once more. Then it began gathering again, this time to a point right between the first two. Mikes eyes widened as he dropped downwards, flattening himself as fast as he could. The third Spike erupted from the point that it had been gathering at. Missing gouging another furrow in his scalp by centimetres. As the spike erupted the aura of Metal mana expanded again. What was going on, was the ooze using the mana in the Aether? Or was the mana in the Aether just drawn towards the mana that the ooze no doubt contained, and more drawn to where the ooze focused it''s mana when it cast? Mike decided now was not the time to be considering arcane physics when the aura once again contracted, this time covering the entire length of the overlapping spikes above him. He inelegantly rolled out from beneath them. They shifted, all three of them melding together and turning into a thick single-edged cleaver. This time it didn¡¯t Strike immediately, instead, pivoting at the base and reeling back for a strike. ¡°What are you doing boy? Get outta there! Or at least get where I can see ya so I can start shooting at the bastard,¡± Crosse yelled from his position on the other side of the ooze. Mike kept his eyes on the metallic pillar that was the ooze and on the huge cleaver that was about to fall in his direction. Mike quickly rolled back in the other direction as the ooze''s weapon began to descend towards him. As he was mid-roll he felt the edge of the huge blade brush across his shoulder as it passed over him. He finished the roll onto his back as he felt the ground shake from the force of the weapon hitting the ground. Mike was starting to get a read on this thing, it seemingly wasn¡¯t very smart, he had made the least likely methods of evasion each time and the ooze had yet to compensate correctly. This time, the second he was on his back he reached up to the spot on his jacket that covered the pouch of gems filled with Dark mana. He reached into the gems with his control requesting the mana obey him and felt himself gain purchase. He took as much mana as he could in the short few moments while he saw the aura of Metal mana still present around the ooze. When the aura started to shrink down again he aimed his hand towards the main body of the ooze, once again requesting that the mana cause the creature pain. The palm of Dark magic shot from his hand and its fingers sunk into the surface of the ooze. The still shrinking aura expanded again as ripples started to spread over the previously entirely still pillar. Mike decided this was his chance to get the fuck away. So he backed up, sliding over the dirt on his butt pushed by his legs for a few metres before he took the time to stand and look around for Crosse. He saw the hunter standing a few metres back from where he had jumped to before the ooze attacked. ¡°What¡¯d you do to it?¡± Crosse asked. He had his bow drawn into a semi-circle, the fletching of the arrow touching his face. He didn¡¯t look like it was even remotely difficult. ¡°I stopped it from attacking for a few seconds, I hope,¡± Mike replied. He then started edging around the ooze in a circle, approaching Crosse. As soon as he wasn¡¯t directly in the path of the arrow, Crosse released it. It flew straight at the pillar that was the ooze. Mike watched as it sunk into the pillar, the arrowhead piercing through to the other side. The ripples across the surface of the monster became more extreme. Mike kept an eye on the hand that was his chill touch spell, it would last 10 seconds according to the description, his hand twitched towards the jacket pocket. He wanted to cast it again, but Crosse could see him now, what would the man think? According to the AI, only Elves and Beasts in this world could use Magic. Crosse seemed alternatively respectful and afraid of the Elves and seemed to really hate the Beasts. Mike wasn¡¯t an Elf, so would Crosse immediately jump to the idea that he was a beast to explain his anomalous use of Magic? Mike wasn¡¯t sure he could fight the man and was even less sure he could bring himself to kill him. He was reaching him now and called to him, ¡°How do we kill it? Does fire work on these ones too?¡± ¡°Yes, though not nearly as well, and only when it is weakened like this,¡± Crosse said as he drew back another arrow and fired it at the ooze, this one catching fire as it left the longbow, it hit the ooze with a sizzling noise and once again seemed to penetrate deep, thought Mike couldn''t see the other side to tell if it went all the way through. The ooze¡¯s form of a pillar of golden metal started to droop as the ripples continued to run along its surface. Mike was getting much closer to Crosse now and as he glanced at him he noticed something as the hunter drew back his bow again with another arrow already nocked. Crosse wasn¡¯t carrying any arrows. Mike blinked as he saw the hunter release the arrow and it once again caught fire as it left the bow. Mike was standing close enough to see the arrowhead flash with red mana this time though and see as Crosse touched two fingers to the grip of the bow and pulled them back. There was a dim aura of brown mana between his fingers as an arrow grew out of the grip of the bow to be nocked to the string, its arrowhead emerging from the grip as a sharpened wooden spike. Mike blinked, maybe Crosse wouldn¡¯t be suspicious if he used some magic, either that bow was rather magical or Crosse was, Mike was leaning towards the former. Mike looked back at the ooze as it was still reacting from being hit by another flaming arrow. ¡°It has a core of amber somewhere inside it that can be broken by an arrow, usually we shoot it from multiple directions at a time, because it tends to move it in reaction to getting shot, but it isn¡¯t really smart enough to react to three or four arrows at once.¡± Mike nodded as Crosse drew another arrow from the grip of his bow and fired it. This time though, Mike saw the Aura of the ooze, which was now the more typical shape of its kind, shrink down and the arrow hit the side of the ooze and bounced off. The aura returned around the ooze and Mike made up his mind. Putting his hand to the spot on his jacket over the Dark mana that he could still clearly sense there. He drew it out, channelled it, into the spell, reaching out in a claw-like gesture towards the ooze as he released it. The spell shot out and collided with the Ooze and its surface once again began violently rippling. As Mike glanced to Crosse he saw the man looking at him intently. Looking him over as if trying to work out how Mike had done that. Then looking back to the slime, Mike tensed for a second afraid the AI would slap him again for calling it a slime, but it didn¡¯t come. Mike sighed in relief and looked back to the ooze and furrowed his brow, the aura of Metal mana that surrounded it in the Aether was getting deeper, the golden metallic colouring of the space around it strengthening. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong,¡± Mike stated, trying to focus his Mana sight harder on the ooze. The aura of Metal mana started to contract on the round body of the ooze and Mike focus as hard as he could, he narrowed his attunement trying to overlap it with his field of vision, wanting to focus whatever the AI had done to give him the ability to see mana. It worked and the other kinds of mana in Mike¡¯s periphery vanished as he focused in on the ooze. His mana sight seemed to penetrate the surface of the ooze and he could see the Metal mana that it physically contained. The mana was forming into hundreds of tiny lines just beneath the surface of the ooze, each a solid bar of golden Metal mana in Mike¡¯s vision. It only took a second for Mike to work it out. ¡°Cover!¡± Mike said as he looked around, he saw a tree almost five metres away and began to sprint. Crosse didn¡¯t ask questions and followed, quickly overtaking him. Mike tried not to think about the ooze as he ran as hard as he could towards the tree. When he was only a couple of metres from it he heard a distinct popping noise and decided to jump. He dived towards the cover of the tree and felt a hot spike of pain lance up his leg as the front of his body slid into cover behind the tree. Chapter 25 - The Outcome ¡°Fucking, FUCK!¡± Mike swore as he pulled himself further behind the tree, feeling the hot pain of whatever the ooze had done lance up his leg with every movement. Crosse who was actually breathing hard for once looked back at him with stern concern. ¡°What happened?¡± he asked concisely, stepping towards Mike''s prone form and looking him over for wounds. ¡°Fuck!¡± Mike swore again in response, then explained, ¡°Leg, one of the damn needles got me in the leg.¡± Crosse squatted beside him. ¡°Which leg and where?¡± he asked. ¡°Right leg, Front of my thigh I think,¡± Mike replied through gritted teeth. Crosse just curtly nodded and grabbed Mike by the shoulder and in one smooth motion rolled him onto his back. He then grabbed Mike''s ankles and turned him so that his head pointed at the trees, backing him up from there with Mike¡¯s help until his back was against the sturdy wood. Crosse and Mike Looked down at his right thigh at almost the same time. There were almost five centimetres of gold needle sticking out of Mike''s thigh. Mike cringed at seeing it. He couldn¡¯t help but think that this was his only pair of decent travelling pants as well, as pointless as the thought was. Crosse moved around him to the side with the wound and pinched Mike¡¯s pants to either side of the needle. He pulled to the sides and the fabric ripped like paper around the puncture. Mike¡¯s queasy feeling increased as he could see the needle sticking directly into the flesh. Crosse took off his pack and took out his medical satchel. ¡°This is too small to stitch, but is otherwise just a flesh wound, it could be pretty deep but there isn¡¯t much we can do about that until Lady Ina gets a look at you. Right now we need to stop the bleeding and there is one easy way to do that, but it is going to hurt probably twice as much as actually getting stabbed did, at least at first,¡± Crosse explained as he took out his bandages, a short wooden rod wrapped in leather, then grabbed his bow. He offered the wrapped wood and said, ¡°Put this in your mouth, don¡¯t want you hurting those teeth.¡± Mike took it, he had an idea as to what Crosse was considering but had to ask. ¡°You¡¯re going to cauterise it with the arrow?¡± he asked, he knew the answer even before Crosse nodded and gripped his bow. Mike felt himself go paler and his head got dizzy, but he shook it off and put the piece of wood between his teeth, ready to bite down on it when the pain came. When Crosse had pulled the arrow out all the way, he rubbed the shaft in a quick motion across the grip and the sharp wooden head lit with the burst of fire mana that Mike had seen before. Crosse then put down the bow and reached for the needle. His eyes met Mike¡¯s asking wordlessly if he was ready. Mike wasn¡¯t, but he nodded anyway. Crosse yanked to needle out of the wound and Mike barely felt it. He felt the hot blood that started to run from the wound though and then he felt the excruciating heat of the wooden shaft, lit by Fire magic, press against the wound and twist. *** Mike¡¯s eyes fluttered open. He must have fainted, again. He lifted his head to see Crosse right in front of him, in the process of wrapping Mikes thigh in a bandage, pant leg and all. ¡°How long was I out?¡± Mike asked groggily as he blinked at the light. ¡°Less than a minute. Didn¡¯t you hear me earlier when I said that not getting hurt was a much better option to getting hurt and getting treated? Well, I hope this little experience teaches you that lesson better.¡± Crosse said gruffly, but not without some wryness. ¡°Duly noted. At least it was better than becoming a pincushion, well, more of a pincushion,¡± Mike said. He looked around the tree in the direction they had come. ¡°Is it still back there?¡± he asked, not sure what to feel. ¡°If it was, it would have come for us, Gold-sap Oozes are more aggressive than tree-sap ones, they want the metal in our blood and bones to grow. They are heavy fuckers though, and they really only move around as you saw at first. Those huge bursts of power that propel them into something, preferably whatever it wants to kill I imagine.¡± Crosse said, well, crossly. ¡°How is the leg?¡± Crosse asked as he tied off the bandage. Mike tentatively attempted to move it. He interestingly didn¡¯t feel any pain. His leg just felt kinda numb. ¡°Did you use that salve again?¡± Mike asked. ¡°Yes, I also gave you a drink of something that helps with pain, you should be good until we get to the village and Lady Ina can heal you.¡± Mike didn¡¯t know what to think about whatever medicine Crosse had given him while he was out. He supposed he shouldn¡¯t expect this society to follow his society''s expectations of consent when it came to medication. He sighed, leaning his head back against the trunk. ¡°Thanks, have any idea what did happen with the ooze?¡± Crosse shook his head, ¡°I was just about to go and check what it¡¯s like, but I think it¡¯s either gone or dead.¡± Mike nodded. ¡°Go and check, I¡¯m not going anywhere,¡± Mike replied. Crosse nodded and stood, picking up his bow and taking it with him as he rounded the trunk of the tree. Mike just put his head against the tree and shut his eyes, breathing. Three times in two days, he had almost gotten killed. Crosse was only gone for a few moments and he came back around looking angry, ¡°It''s dead, we need to go.¡± he said and offered a hand down to Mike. Mike took it, and Crosse heaved him to his feet. Mike was hesitant to put weight on his leg, despite the lack of pain. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you should be fine to walk on it normally until we get back,¡± Crosse said as he gathered up all of his medical supplies and took something that looked like a burlap sack out of his pack. Mike then followed him back around the tree to the scene of the fight. The entire area was littered with needles, there had to be thousands of them. The spot where the ooze had embedded itself in the ground was now a crater almost two metres wide. They approached the edge of the crater and Mike saw why Crosse was sure that the ooze was dead. The crater was full of a shiny golden sap, it looked like honey almost but more yellow, inside that sap were a few objects of interest. The most disturbing of which was what appeared to be a full set of human bones, right next to it, a longbow that looked almost Identical to Crosse¡¯s own. Lastly, there was a golfball-sized lump of amber that seemed to be attracting a decent amount of both Wood and Metal mana to itself in the Aether. Mike looked over to Crosse, his angry expression making more sense now, ¡°Is that¡­¡± Mike didn¡¯t know how to ask tactfully. Crosse nodded sharply. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s Connor, his bow is unique.¡± Crosse didn''t say any more as he stepped into the syrupy sap and started collecting the bones, one by one, putting them into the sack. Mike stood at the edge of the crater and watched in silence for a few minutes. He could tell that Crosse was mourning and in pain, but he had no idea how to help or comfort him. He seemed angry most of all, at Connor? at the ooze? Or at Spirit beasts and the world in general? Not knowing what to do or think about the situation, Mike¡¯s head and attention turned to that lump of amber. That was the core of the ooze that Crosse had described. The way that the AI had described the Plunder system had made sense, but Mike didn¡¯t know how it would react to a creature that didn¡¯t have anything close to a head or a heart. Mike supposed that he also hadn¡¯t really been the one to kill it. He took a step towards the pool of sap but stopped. ¡°How do we know it isn¡¯t playing dead to draw us in?¡± he asked Crosse If it was still alive and they both stepped into that sap¡­ ¡°It¡¯s dead, It wouldn¡¯t willing to reveal its core like that if it was alive. Whatever it was that you did to it must have convinced it that it was dying. So it tried to take us with it in that last burst. That used up too much of the metal in it though and it died.¡± Crosse explained, not halting in his task of collecting the bones. Mike thought about it and decided that he may as well trust the hunter¡¯s judgement, he had been right about most everything so far. So Mike stepped down into the shallow pool of sap and made one more step to reach the core. He examined it from this perspective without touching it. It wasn¡¯t perfectly round, it looked like a gnarl that had been cut out of a piece of timber. The mana in the aether formed an aura around it, much like how it had when the ooze was alive. Mike finally bent down to touch it with his right hand¡¯s fingertips. He was surprised when the notification appeared in front of him, but he supposed Crosse wasn¡¯t paying him much attention at the moment. He moved to be between Cross and the window and it rotated to keep facing him.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Congratulations! You have defeated Level 9 Gold-sap ooze! EXP gained from fight 45% Physical EXP 25% Mental EXP +1 Mental aspect Level! 50% Magic EXP +1 Magic aspect Level! +1 Average level Skill Levels gained from fight Mana sight +1 You have unlocked the Skills Metal Magic Resistance Fire Magic Resistance EXP Gains from plundering Gold-sap ooze¡¯s Magic EXP 65% Congratulations! Your Magic aspect has reached Level 5! You have gained 1 Magic Skill Slot. What would you like to equip?
Magic Skills
Skill Slots ? 3
Mana Sight ? ATU/PER Amateur 3
Light Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Dark Magic AFI/CON Amateur 4
Dark Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Arcane Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 1
Metal Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Fire Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Congratulations! You have gained 1 Average Level!
Name Mike Sven
Age 22
Sex Male
Height 180cm
Weight 58.2kg
Wizard Level 2
Wizard EXP 20%
Average Level 4
Physical Statistics 0
Level 4
Exp 50%
Strength (STR) 10 (+/-)
Endurance (END) 10 (+/-)
Agility (AGI) 12 (+/-)
Dexterity (DEX) 10 (+/-)
Mental Statistics 2
Level 3
Exp 5%
Intelligence (INT) 15 (+/-)
Wisdom (WIS) 12 (+/-)
Perception (PER) 11 (+/-)
Willpower (WIL) 10 (+/-)
Magic Statistics 2
Level 5
Exp 70%
Affinity (AFI) 16 (+/-)
Attunement (ATU) 11 (+/-)
Control (CON) 11 (+/-)
Resistance (RES) 7 (+/-)
General Points 2
It seemed fights were a great way to progress, two-aspect Levels and an Average Level was great for less than five minutes of working for it. Though he still preferred the way he had trained last night. He had also unlocked two new Skills, both Metal Magic Resistance and Fire Magic Resistance. He could find out if he could use them to unlock the respective control skills for those mana types. He had quite a few skill points to spend again as well, he would need to think about what to do with them Seeing as he had just gained a new Magic Skill Slot too, he figured that he might as well try it. So he equipped Metal Magic Resistance in the empty Skill Slot. He could immediately sense the amber core in front of him. Dismissing the notification, he looked to it and tried to parse what he was sensing. The Metal mana felt impenetrable and sharp. Which he supposed made sense, those were likely the main ways that this ooze had used its access to the element. This was the first of the five core elements that he had sensed, and it felt more cohesive somehow than the others. Light and Dark mana gave him mixed signals with light giving him the impression of scientific understanding and Dark the feeling of emptiness and apathy. Metal mana felt like, well, metal. It could be hard and it could be sharp, it wanted to be hard and sharp because those were the reasons it was valuable. Mike reaches out and picked up the core, it was likely as useful an object as the pouch of Dark mana gems, though he would need to equip arcane logic to measure exactly how much mana it was attracting to itself. Though he supposed if he trained with the skill he could work that out on his own, that was the point of the Skills after all. He stood up straight, turning the core in his hands. He turned to look to Crosse who was still collecting the bones of his dead friend, mumbling to himself in what Mike assumed was Manish, the Human language, even though to him it sounded like completely random noises strung together. ¡°Would you like some help?¡± Mike offered, it was the least he could do. Crosse paused in reaching out towards a bone. ¡°Yes, thank you,¡± he replied, sounding resigned his anger seeming to have faded some. Mike nodded and stepped through the thick sap, leaving behind boot prints. He helped Crosse collect all of the bones for what felt like an hour. It was morbid work and Mike couldn¡¯t help but shiver as he thought of the fact that these were real human bones not some display or mockup in a science lab. This had been a person, a hunter from the village of Inasholme, who had devoted himself to protecting his home from monsters. If Mike had been wary of the idea of helping this village before, he was fucking sure he would now. Chapter 26 - Inasholme Mike once again walked through the forest behind Crosse. Crosse had handed him the dead hunter, Connor¡¯s, longbow. He had said that it was dead, but that Lady Ina could revive it and make it work the way that his did. For a new hunter to use. For now, it was a decent walking stick for the person with an injured leg. Crosse was carrying the sack that contained the remains, cradled in his arms. Mike had been wanting to speak up to ask about the hunter in more detail, but he felt like his natural curiosity would be inappropriate in this situation. He didn¡¯t know what to ask or how to broach the topic of a dead friend or comrade with someone, especially right after finding their remains. He wanted to console the older man, but he honestly didn¡¯t know him that well and was trying not to think about what might have happened if things had gone even a little bit different. When he at first dodged forward he had been expecting the spikes, but he hadn¡¯t expected them to come out at an angle and overlap like that, he didn¡¯t know if that had been the original objective of the ooze, or if it had done that to try and hit him after he moved closer, and just missed. Either way, if he had been just a little slower or done something differently like dodging backwards, he would have been a dead man. That was true for almost the entire fight tiny little differences and he would have ended up skewered by the spikes, cut in half or turned into a pincushion. He was honestly lucky that Chill touch had worked as well as it had. The thing had been a monster made of Metal mana and tree sap and he wasn¡¯t sure if it conventionally felt pain at all. Perhaps Magically induced pain worked differently. His spells were something he needed to work on, with both Metal and Fire Magic resistance now, he might be able to actually learn to use some offensive Magic. He looks down at the bow in his hand. It was almost a solid branch to him right now, he wondered how they worked. He didn¡¯t know if he could help Crosse mourn his friend, or console him in any way, but perhaps he could distract him, it helped him. ¡°What did you mean when you said the bow was ¡®dead¡¯,¡± Mike asked, looking to Crosse¡¯s back. Crosse glanced back at him then spoke up, ¡°the hunter¡¯s bows were all made by Lady Ina when she decided that she didn¡¯t want to deal with every single beast that was threatening the village. They are Magic weapons that aid in harming the Beasts, most of which have some resistance to mundane weapons. I said it is dead because it is currently without an owner, they require a human wielder to function. ¡°Something in them dies and they lose their flexibility and abilities, such as the bowstring and the arrows. However if Lady Ina approves a new hunter she can connect them to the bow, it will regain its uses and lost capabilities, I intend to ask her to let you have that one, you seem capable. whatever you did to that ooze stopped it dead and I assume that is the same thing that you did to the peryton?¡± Crosse asked, looking back. Mike nodded, feeling awkward, he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to explain what he had done to Crosse, the old hunter seemed to like him, but Mike wasn¡¯t so certain of his assessment. Mike had lucked his way through every encounter he had had so far, or had someone vastly more capable carry him through it. He had beaten the peryton on his own but had sustained so much damage that in his current state he had just passed out. Mike didn¡¯t know how to respond to that, He wasn¡¯t sure he deserved that honour just yet, he had no idea how to use a bow with any amount of reliability, having only shot one a few times back on Earth. The bow was an obviously useful tool though, and staying in Inasholme and learning to deserve the title of hunter didn¡¯t sound like too bad a place for him in this world. From there they continued walking both too deep in thought to continue talking. *** The sun was close to setting as they began to hear the sound of a river in the distance, Crosse had smiled sadly and told Mike that that meant they were almost there. After less than half an hour of walking, they reached the town of Inasholme. As the settlement came into view Mike¡¯s eyes widened and his lips parted in awe as he took it in. The idea of the treetop village was something that the fantasy genre was infatuated with. The idea of Wood Elves and Demi-Humans living as one with nature being a core aspect of their identity. Seeing such a thing in real life was every bit as awe-inspiring as he had imagined. The village of Inasholme was constructed around the trunks of the huge gild-leaf trees, as Crosse had called them. As they drew closer Mike saw that the settlement wasn¡¯t constructed around the trunks, it seemed grown out of and into them. The whole village was grown into several of the gild-Leaf trees, that looked like even larger examples of the species than he was used to by now. With stairs seemingly grown out of the trunk that spiralled upwards starting from a large root at the bottom that reached the ground like a ramp. At about a third of the way up the trunk, there were flat walkways in rings that had doorways carved into them. The design made Mike think of an inside out spire, with the hallways of each level wrapped around the outside and the staircase never stopping, rising past the last level and into the leaved branches of the trees. At a few of the levels, there were what looked like thick branches bridging the gaps between the trees. Mike could see people too, Humans. They were spread all over the trees, some standing on the walkways ringing the tree, leaning on the wooden railings that seemed to be there and talking, others crossing the bridges with armloads of food and other objects. Some were even high up, walking down the staircase at the top levels of the tree, too distant for Mike to see what they were carrying.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Mike drew in a shaky breath. It hadn¡¯t been that long from his perspective since he had been separated from people like himself, but the AI had told him enough times that it had been two months for it to sink in. That was compounded by the harrowing events of the last few days of his life, to make him feel isolated in a way that he had never felt before. It was nice just to see people. He wasn¡¯t sure if he was up to actually interacting with any of them, but it was nice to see them. Especially since he wasn¡¯t sure he would even be able to understand them. By the time he had collected himself from the shock of seeing such a fantastical sight, they had reached within twenty metres of the ramp that lead up a root of the nearest tree. When Mike finally focused on it he saw that someone was waiting for them at the top of the of that ramp. Someone who had a longbow and was wearing a jacket and pants padded with leather. Mike blinked and looked to Crosse, ¡°A guard or a welcome?¡± he asked. Crosse¡¯s expression fell into a stoic mask as he stopped walking. ¡°A welcome, though not for us, and not one that will go well. I wanted to wait,¡± he said. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, then sighed it out. He started walking towards the ramp again and Mike followed a step behind him. They reached the bottom of the ramp and went up the first few steps before the man higher up called down to them. As Mike had expected, he didn¡¯t understand. Then the man''s voice cleared around a single word ¡°... Connor?¡± It was inflected as a question. Mike immediately started to understand the context for the situation and was hyper-conscious of his hand on the arm of the longbow he had been using as a walking stick. Crosse replied looking pained, and this time Mike understood two words, ¡°...Connor¡­ dead.¡± The man at the top of the steps staggered at the declaration. Mike took the moment to properly look him over. He was taller than Crosse but shorter than Mike, he seemed younger than Crosse as well, maybe in his early or mid-thirties, while Crosse seemed like he could be in his early forties if he had aged well. His hair was black and his eyes dark brown, in contrast to Crosse¡¯s much lighter hair and eye colour. Though he shared the pale skin tone with the older man. As Mike examined him he saw the man¡¯s eyes began to fill with tears. He rapidly tried to blink them away, his jaw and fists clenched. He shouted one word and this one Mike understood, ¡°How!?¡± Crosse started to explain, taking the next few steps upwards toward the man. Mike stayed back not wanting to bring any attention to himself, he was an outsider here and he didn¡¯t know how this man would react to that. So he stayed back, moving his hand to grip the bow at its centre, just watching and listening, not sure how to feel. Crosse''s words were back to indecipherable noises, and the other man was getting progressively more upset, He looked as if he couldn¡¯t decide to be devastated and sad or devastated and angry. He eventually looked down at the cloth sack in Crosse¡¯s arms and froze, obviously not having noticed it before, or not having realised its contents. Maybe Crosse had just explained the exact manner of the young hunter¡¯s death and it had just occurred to him that the sack was big enough to contain all that was left of him. Mike closed his eyes and took another deep breath to calm himself down. He could barely understand his feelings, let alone this man¡¯s. Who he assumed was the father of the dead hunter or at least a very close relative like a brother or uncle. Mike¡¯s eyes opened when he heard another phrase he understood. ¡°Who are you?¡± the man had asked him. Mike looked to him and then looked to Crosse, he couldn¡¯t respond as if he understood, Crosse knew he didn¡¯t speak Manish, and while he had said that he learned fast, he hadn¡¯t said that he could learn simply from understanding the context and listening in for a little while. As Mike expected Crosse spoke to him in GIldaic to translate, ¡°He is asking you who you are, introduce yourself, politely, though he cannot speak Gildaic he will know if you are rude.¡± Mike nodded and bowed upwards to the grieving man, saying, ¡°I am Mike Sven, I am sorry about what happened to your son, I hope to do everything I can to help this village, though I know that is not enough to bring him back.¡± when he was done Mike stood erect again and looked to Crosse. Crosse nodded and then translated his sentence back to the man in Manish. Mike blinked, he thought it was Manish, even though he understood every word of what Crosse said, which was just a verbatim translation of his own words. The man seemed to be collecting himself somewhat, the initial shock of his son''s death sinking in, the grief settling deeper, no longer as outwardly visible, for the moment. He replied to Crosse and Mike mostly understood, ¡°He doesn¡¯t speak Manish? Only...?¡± Mike didn¡¯t catch the words at the end, but he assumed it was a colloquial term for Gildaic. Crosse nodded, and the man turned to face Mike again. He nodded his head in recognition and spoke to Mike directly, ¡°I am Gonal, father of Connor,¡± his eyes flicked down to the bow in Mike¡¯s hand and his hands clenched tightly again, but his face didn¡¯t change, ¡°The village will thank you for your assistance if it is capable, but if not then I advise you stay away, you are not much older than my son i...¡± He stopped and his voice caught, ¡°was,¡± he finished. When he finished, Crosse turned to him and repeated the speech on Gildaic, filling in the few words that Mike had not quite gotten. Crosse took the last few steps up towards Gonal. Lifting the sack towards him as he did. Gonal reached down, scooping the sack full of his son¡¯s bones into his arms. His composure didn¡¯t crack as Mike had expected it to, but he gave Crosse a very hard stare and said something that Mike didn¡¯t understand in Manish, proving that he had indeed not entirely acclimated to it yet. Gonal left, Making his way up the steps that ran up along the trunk ahead of them. Crosse not following him. ¡°What was that at the end?¡± Mike asked out of curiosity because he knew that Crosse translating it would help acclimate to the language faster, and because he didn¡¯t want to dwell on the scene of a father carrying the remains of his dead son clutched to his chest any longer than was necessary. Crosse watched Gonal until he was carried around the curve of the huge tree by the steps, then sighed. ¡°Connor was my apprentice. He graduated from it less than two seasons ago. Gonal wanted to be his partner from that point on but Connor said no, he said that I needed him more because I was reckless and I¡¯d get myself dead without him.¡± Crosse stopped talking, swallowing. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sent out after the peryton, Connor and I were sent after the tree-sap ooze, but we came across the trail of the peryton on the way. I left him behind to deal with the ooze because I thought it was beneath me and that he could handle it. I wanted to kill the fucking bird before it got any of the villagers.¡± As Crosse spoke he closed his eyes and clenched his fists, a very similar showing of emotion to Gonal¡¯s earlier. ¡°I¡¯m the reason that boy is dead.¡± Chapter 27 - Lady Ina Crosse stood still on the step for more than a minute as Mike watched, not sure what to say. He was visibly gathering himself, fists clenching and unclenching and breathing deeply. He then spoke up, ¡°We need to get moving, you need to see the Lady for healing and I want to make a report directly to her of Connor¡¯s death, she likes to know when one of us dies and it is my responsibility to go between the hunters and her, as I speak Gildaic.¡± Mike nodded, glad for the diversion from the heavy mood, ¡°lead the way,¡± Mike replied. Crosse did, leading Mike up the steps that circled up the trunk. Mike looked around as they ascended, seeing the forest floor getting further away as the climbed, he looked up to the dwelling on the other trees, still above them. He could see the people moving in and out of the doors that lead into cavities that made for the rooms in these towering trees. ¡°What do you call these trees that you live in? Are they different from the other gild-leaf trees? They seem larger,¡± Mike asked, hoping that he could distract Crosse further from his dark thoughts, and also because he was genuinely curious. ¡°We call the trees Inasholmes, as they are the town and because she made them for us. As far as I know, they aren¡¯t any different to the other gild-leaf trees, they just look larger because of what was done to shape them into their current forms. The hollows that we live in weren¡¯t carved into the trees, the trees were reshaped to have them, so the mass that was there had to go somewhere, that¡¯s why the trees seem so much larger,¡± Crosse explained, still looking ahead as they reached the first landing. The landing was a walkway that circled the entire trunk and Mike could see the first doorway to one of the hollows that Cros had described, hanging in it to obscure the entry was a curtain that seemed to have been woven from the leaves of the tree. They didn¡¯t have the aura of metal mana about them that Mike could still see around the leaves above them. As Mike took the chance now to look around with Mana Sight on he saw that the whole village was covered in that diffuse white aura that he had seen back in the facility. It clung to the trees and bridges, had all of this been done with only Light Magic? As Crosse lead them around the walkway to reach the set of stairs to the next level Mike wondered if he should prepare for meeting this ¡®Lady Ina¡¯ he had heard a lot about her from Crosse up to this point and it seemed likely that she was rather powerful, more powerful than Ishare or that woman he had seen right before escaping, Ailish. What would he do if she was hostile? Or if she wanted to take him back to Ailish and the facility? Not much he imagined but he couldn¡¯t just not see her, she seemed important to this place, if he wanted to stay here for some time to gather his bearings a little, which he did, he would need to meet her at some point. No time like the present, if she was hostile he would know soon. He didn¡¯t have to go in unprotected, though. He thought towards the AI, he wanted to swap skills but couldn¡¯t open up a window here with so many people watching. There had to be a way to cast an illusion that only he could see. He didn¡¯t know it though and it seemed neither did the AI or it would be teasing him with it to teach him it. So he sent a thought towards the AI in his mind, he was certain it could read his thoughts, as disconcerting as that was. He wanted to swap Metal Magic Resistance for Light Magic Resistance. Nothing happened, but he got some feedback. It seemed like he needed to be standing still, something about the window not existing made a different restriction activate. The AI seemed to want to discourage the swapping of Skills in intense situations. He wasn¡¯t sure why, besides the obviously vulnerable moment of absolute stillness that he had experienced with the peryton. So he followed Crosse up the next set of steps, which also didn¡¯t have a railing, trying to think of a moment where he could stop and be still. ¡°Does anyone ever fall?¡± Mike asked, mostly out of sudden curiosity. Crosse chuffed a laugh, ¡°Not often, and unless they are supremely stupid, they get healing afterwards. We haven¡¯t had anyone die from falling, that I can remember.¡± Mike nodded, The steps were up against the trunk of the tree and although they didn¡¯t have railings, the walkways did, and it was only three-ish metres per level. So unless someone fell off a walkway or a bridge, they wouldn¡¯t be falling far. Not that one needed to fall far to die from it, but it seemed likely that the people of this world were a tad sturdier than back on earth. They reached the next level and Crosse walked towards one of the branch-like bridges that connected the trees, Mike looked out across the village from the bridge as they made their way across. He stopped when he saw something he hadn¡¯t noticed yet. He over walked to the railing, leaning on it to get a better look. Not far from the most distant Inasholme tree, there was a wide river that Mike could only barely see the other side of from the bridge. That was the river he had been hearing for the past hour or so. On the near bank of the river there was a dock that had grown out of the side of one of the Inasholme trees near the shore. At the dock there were what seemed to be canoes with people unloading laden nets from them. Some of the nets were obviously full of fish, others were full of what looked like fruit, though he couldn¡¯t tell what kind from this distance. As he had leaned up against the railing he had sent the request to the AI to swap the Skills, and had been making these observations in the seconds that he couldn¡¯t control his body, he felt the swap finish and could immediately sense the Light mana that was surrounding the bridge in a diffuse aura. He tried to cast a Minor Illusion, but couldn''t, the mana simply didn¡¯t react to his Control at all. Crosse had stopped to watch Mike as he looked out over the dock, he spoke up as Mike moved again. ¡°Most of the Villagers'' food is fish and fruit from an orchard that the Lady helped set up down the river, that kind of place draws specific beasts so it needs to be apart from the rest of the town.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Mike nodded again, it was good to know what they ate around here, he was honestly hungry enough a moment that he wouldn¡¯t complain about just eating his rations. Fresh fish and fruit sounded much better. ¡°Come on we are almost there,¡± Crosse said as he turned to keep walking, raising an arm to point a finger towards a tree at the centre of the village. Mike looked and saw the tree was different from the rest. It was actually even larger than the Inasholme trees that looked almost 10 metres in diameter. It only had one bridge connecting it to the rest of the village, this bridge didn¡¯t have railings, and it seemed to end at a dead-end at the side of the large tree. ¡°Lady Ina¡¯s home changes much more often than the other trees. She controls its shape directly and it is entirely hollow, with walkways and passageways within instead of on the outside. Doors and bridges appear as she needs them instead of being static,¡± Crosse explained as they reached the next tree and walked along its second level walkway to the start of the bridge connecting to Lady Ina¡¯s tree. Mike took a deep breath before he followed Crosse out onto the bridge. When they were halfway across the bridge he saw a pulse of Light mana run over the bark wall at the end of the bridge and the wooden wall separated, flowing apart, until there was a doorway large enough to walk through in the side of the tree. Mike and Crosse entered to be met with a wall and a staircase going upward their right, Mike looked up it and saw Light Orbs spring into existence along the ceiling of the stairway. Mike could feel the Light mana moving through this tree. It wasn¡¯t in the Aether, or at least most of it wasn¡¯t. It was physically in the tree and didn¡¯t seem to be evaporating the way he had seen Elemental mana do whenever he tried to channel it into the Mortal realm. He wished he could sense the amount of it, but he didn¡¯t have Arcane logic equipped and he hadn¡¯t mastered enough of the skill to do the calculations entirely on his own. He felt like he would likely need both Acting and Language in the next little while so he didn¡¯t stop to make the change either. Mike was hard-pressed to think of a situation where he wouldn¡¯t need Language, it seemed to work rather differently to his other skills, he wondered what would happen if he tried to unequip it, would he maintain his ability to converse in the acclimated languages? Or would everything just become gibberish? As he walked up the narrow stairway behind Crosse, Mike remembered that he had unspent Stat points! He hadn''t had a time alone to think about their allocation, which he would have preferred, but he was going into a potentially dangerous situation here, he should probably spend at least the free aspect points. He sent the order towards the AI to put the two Magic points into Attunement and the two Mental points into Wisdom. They would work, he didn''t think having an incredibly unbalanced stat would be worthwhile, so dumping points into Intelligence likely wasn''t ideal. He was also going into what might be a tense social situation, and he had the hunch that wisdom was the better stat for that. When he flexed his Attunement sense after spending the points he was happy to find that it was probably a metre wider in radius, bringing it to four metres. He was starting to see the correlation between his Attunement stat and the range of his sense. He would need to work it out exactly later. Because right now they had reached the end of the stairs. Mike exited the staircase behind Crosse and found himself in a room that greatly reminded him of a study. The walls were lined with shelves stacked with books, their covers made of thin sheets of golden metal and there was a desk directly across from the entrance, at which sat a woman. All Mike could see of her was the back of her head, which was covered by pale golden hair and the tips of golden ears that poked outwards to the sides and upwards. Much more concerning was the fact that Mike''s still active Attunement sense reached her seated form now. She was abeacon of Light mana, though no more of it was visible around her than in the rest of the building. Before Mike could proccess this or even try to understand exactly how much mana there wasCrosse stepped forward, and the ambient noise of a metal pen scratching paper ended. ¡°My Lady, I have come with news of the death of a hunter and with an ally that I found in the forest, he was wandering alone and managed to single-handedly defeat a young peryton. He was injured in the fight however and wishes your aid in healing. He also helped me recover the remains of my dead partner by aiding in the killing of a golden-sap ooze. I ask you to please help him Lady Ina.¡± Crosse said as he bowed forward at the waist, keeping his arms by his side and his legs straight. There was a sigh from the seated woman, Lady Ina. ¡°I have said to you before Crosse, you do not need to call me Lady. You are one of the only men from this village I ever actually talk to, my name shall suffice,¡± She said as her chair turned on its own. Mike could see the Light mana flowing into it as a spell, because his attunement sense didn''t pick it up. It was reshaping the wood somehow. As he focused on it with Mana Sight, he could see that the Light Magic was interacting with another form of mana that he hadn¡¯t noticed before. The same brown mana that had made the arrow from Crosse¡¯s bow. Wood mana he assumed. The spell hadn''t drained the absolutely immense amount of Light mana at all to Mike''s perception, which meant it was either completely free, or so trivial to the whole that his sense wasn''t fine enough to tell the difference. The chair turned around and he got his first real look at the Lady Ina. She was beautiful a small smile on her mouth, as he had expected. She looked less sharp than the woman he had seen in the facility, she looked mostly like a Human, but with skin that was metallic gold and of course the ears that narrowed to a point. His inspection halted when he looked at her eyes. They were even more different, the two High Elves in the facility had slitted pupils like a reptile, Lady Ina¡¯s eyes were normal. Well, here irises were gold, but her pupils were black and round like a human¡¯s. While Mike was inspecting her Crosse replied, ¡°You know why I continue, This town calls you lady and just because I happen to speak this language doesn¡¯t make me better than them.¡± Ina rolled her eyes, making Mike blink in surprise, this wasn¡¯t how he had imagined the woman from Crosse¡¯s descriptions. She took a step forward. ¡°So, Connor is dead?¡± she said, some of the cheer exiting her voice and expression. Crosse nodded, ¡°Yes, and I¡¯m sure that his father and the elder hunters are going to hold me accountable to a degree. But that is hunter and village business, which you have told me not to bother you with. This is Mike he has given the village quite some aid by killing the peryton and helping to kill the golden-sap ooze that killed Connor, please ¡­¡± Crosse stopped as he was interrupted. As Mike watched Ina¡¯s attention and gaze turned towards him he felt a chill as her expression became cold and her pupils flashed into slits. Mike tried to step back as he saw a wave of light mana run from her and into the floor, but he found his feet had sunk into the wooden floor. He started to pull on his foot to try and slip it out of his boot. Before he could, he saw the cold expression on Ina''s face change to one of outrage and her pupils shift back to circles. The stately woman snarled looking up to the ceiling as she shouted, ¡°None of that you scaly bastard!¡± Mike felt the pressure restraining his feet loosen as he was lifted out of the floor by another pulse of Light magic into the floor from Ina. She then looked to him, seeming taller than she was. ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked with very thinly veiled intense curiosity, completely lacking the malice that she had when she had shouted. Chapter 28 - Healing Mike stands almost completely still, baffled by the sequence of mixed messages. In this state of daze he said the first thing that came to mind, ¡°Scaly bastard?¡± Ina sighed and collapsed, elegantly, into her seat. ¡°Light,¡± she said, by way of explanation. Mike blinked again, not sure if the fact that she referred to what was supposed to be the creator god of her people as ¡®scaly bastard¡¯ really cleared anything up for him. ¡°Sit down, the both of you, you are making me tired just standing there,¡± as she spoke another pulse of light mana left her body and Mike flinched back, afraid the floor would open up to grasp him again. It didn¡¯t but Ina¡¯s head tilted sideways in reaction to his reaction, she had noticed. The Light magic sunk into the wood of the tree and two new seats rose up in front of the High Elf woman, though they seemed more like stools. They weren¡¯t equals in this room even if she was letting them sit. Crosse sat on his stool and Mike hesitantly followed suit. A smirk touched Ina¡¯s expression, ¡°I can tell you are curious, not as well as a Weaver or Searer could, but I know what you wonder, ask,¡± she said, immediately adding a dozen new questions to Mike already long list. He started with the most immediate, ¡°why is Light, the god of soul and knowledge, a scaly bastard?¡± Ina smiled slightly, though it didn¡¯t quite reach her eyes. ¡°That is a good question, let me tell you what they teach High Elves that enter Light¡¯s clergy, maybe that will clear it up,¡± She responded. ¡°Before Light was a god, and yes the gods were not born gods; he was a High Dragon, a very specific kind of ancient Spirit. Each High Dragon was born with complete control over a single Element of mana within the Spirit realm, they are the most powerful spirits with access to only one Element. He was the High Dragon of the Element of Light. Even though now he prefers to show himself as a humanoid, his followers and High Elves who are too long exposed to the Spirit realm take on draconic traits. ¡°If you ever see a High Elf with the eyes of a dragon, they are currently receiving aid from Light in using their magic,¡± Ina said, finishing her explanation. Mike processed this new information, the most important parts likely being that the gods were once not gods and that both Ailish and the male High Elf he had seen in the facility had had a god sitting on their shoulder, helping them with magic. So Mike spoke the conclusion this information lead him too, ¡°so, you are one of his servants?¡± he asked. Ina sighed again and shook her head, ¡°I was, once, a long time ago. I left the order rather early into my training, but not before the link for Light¡¯s aid was formed between us. I have been following the path of the Sun-Gazer ever since. I hope to someday break the connection between us. It has proved useful on occasion, the gifts that Light grants his servants are not insubstantial, even if I only get the portions of the lowest ranking of them.¡± ¡°So you are directly his enemy then? I have heard you curse at him before, but I didn¡¯t think you hated him,¡± Crosse interjected, looking interested and a little stunned. Ina shook her head. ¡°No. Opposing a god is foolishness of the highest order, especially if said god has a direct access channel to your soul. He couldn¡¯t kill me, even if he wanted too, I am too powerful for that these days; but he can be awfully annoying, as you just saw. I am not a recourse that he can use as he wishes, and I do not follow his directives, especially when he is rude about it, like just now.¡± She turned her attention directly onto Mike, and he squirmed under the scrutiny. ¡°He recognised you and was looking for you specifically, what happened just now was his attention to capture you leaking through as he subconsciously noticed you through our bond. You have something or perhaps are something that he very much wants, which is why I asked who you are. I believe that answers my end of all of this, so now your turn. Who are you?¡± she asked, her intense curiosity from before returning to her eyes. Mike took a deep breath, ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure how to answer that question, but I was very recently in the presence of other High Elves that had eyes as you describe. I don¡¯t know what brought me to this place, but I think it had something to do with a Dark Elf that was imprisoned alongside me.¡± Mike said. He didn¡¯t want to give away too much of what had happened quite so easily, hoping that Ina would take the bait and think that Light was interested in him due to Ishare and not for himself. This piqued Ina¡¯s curiosity, ¡°A Dark Elf? Well, that is uncommon, I wonder what they did to get themselves captured by the Searers. Do you know their name? Or the names of any of those imprisoning you?¡± Mike didn¡¯t know whether to answer, he was trying not to be blindly trusting of this woman. She seemed nice enough but it could just be an act, Light could still be puppeteering her. He decided to not give her any information that he wasn¡¯t certain the High Elves didn¡¯t have already. So nothing about the AI or his spell casting, but Ishare and the tattoo wouldn''t be that bad. ¡°The Dark Elf called himself Ishare, and there was a High Elf that he referred to as Ailish, they seemed to know each other,¡± Mike said. The second Mike said Ailish, Ina¡¯s expression became serious, ¡°Ailish? You are certain?¡± she said, brows angling down in what could be anger or just intensity. Mike nodded wondering exactly how significant this Ailish really was. ¡°Well that is going to make healing you problematic,¡± she said with a weary sigh. Crosse tilted his head and interjected again, ¡°why is that? Did they do something to him that would prevent healing?¡± he asked, this seeming to be more to his interest than the names. ¡°We shall see, Ailish is likely a high ranking Soulsear at this point, and her methods even back before I left the empire were already¡­ extreme,¡± Ina said in response. Mike thought back to something that the AI had said what felt like a long time ago. ¡°Kept alive through excessive use of healing Magic for a couple of months¡­¡± he quoted from memory. Ina¡¯s eyebrow lifted in query, ¡°So you were told? By the Dark Elf? He may have known the side effects of the overuse of healing magic if he had been in Ailish¡¯s care for an extended period. All the same, yes, you do seem to be rather banged up, let me see what I can do for you before I interrogate you any longer,¡± she said, glancing at Mike¡¯s head and thigh bandages. She stood from her seat and took a step towards him and her hand began to glow with Light mana, this time illuminating the room, unlike her previous uses of magic, which had been directed at the tree. Mike didn¡¯t flinch back when her glowing fingertips touched his forehead.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. As the Light moved through him from her fingertips Mike had the distinct impression of being examined on an operating table, a bright spotlight above him, illuminating all of the flaws in his body for a doctor to see. His eyes widened at the impression as it passed through him, he wished he had had Arcane Logic equipped at the moment, he may have been able to intuit more from the sensation. As the glow faded Ina frowned deeply, hand moving back from his head. As Mike watched her eyes flicked to his right arm, he followed them and found the tattoo was now clearly visible on his hand, dark vapour rising from it that Mike knew was Dark mana the second he saw it. Before Mike could ask Ina spoke, looking him in the eyes as she did, ¡°well, I can see why Ailish was interested in you, your mind and brain are completely shielded from my observation, as is whatever is occupying your right arm. I can say that my initial worry was correct, you have been kept alive without proper nutrition for greater than two moons, I can only do the most essential healing for you without causing serious side effects.¡± ¡°What is ¡®the most essential healing¡¯ and what are the potential side effects?¡± Mike asked, the first because it was directly relevant and the latter because it would be very good to know if he ever learned healing himself. To Mike¡¯s surprise, it was Crosse that spoke up, ¡°when she says most essential she means that she isn¡¯t going to make things pretty, everything will work properly but you get to keep the scars.¡± Ina nodded. ¡°The side effects of overhealing are difficult to explain, but since you are curious I will try. When I heal with Light I am mimicking the growth that the sun gives to plants, it is a natural thing, but when one has been doing it for long enough it can be applied with a much finer touch. ¡°This healing isn¡¯t meant for creatures of flesh and blood, however, and has the side effect of going out of control if used too much in a short period or without care. It causes out of control replication of tissue, usually occurring in the skin first but potentially spreading to the rest of the body if not treated with a much more aggressive form of Light magic.¡± Mike¡¯s eyes widened as she explained the side effects in detail, and as she said ¡®out of control replication¡¯ his mouth dropped open. ¡°Cancer! You are saying that healing Magic can cause cancer!¡± he blurted out almost as soon as she was finished, then immediately wanted to slap himself. How would an amnesiac peasant, no matter how extraordinary due to the spirit staple to his soul no what cancer was? Ina¡¯s expression changed to thoughtful, ¡°That isn¡¯t the term we use for it, but it is an apt name for the condition, it is a blight on the body and usually causes death unless it is burned out with very specific and delicate magic, too much of which can just make it worse.¡± It took Mike a second to realise that the Language Skill had translated the word oddly, into something that wasn¡¯t the term used by the High Elves to refer to it. So it was suspicious but not as much as if he had blurted out the technical term for the condition. ¡°Since you seem to understand the effects, wherever you may have learned them,¡± Ina said, giving him a searching look, eyes glancing to his right arm. ¡°I am happy to heal you for what you have done to aid Crosse, and I will not capture you for Light, as much as I am certain he would reward me for it. ¡°I don¡¯t know how much you know of Dragons, but one myth is true. All dragons yearn for a specific type of treasure, the more powerful, then the more general the specificity, and Light yearns for knowledge. He will stop at nothing to have it,¡± Ina explained. ¡°You may stay at this village no longer than a month, as it will take time for whomever Light sends to retrieve you to arrive, I will not protect you from them in such a situation. I enjoy my peace, and fighting a Searer, or even worse, a Spirit-Bound, for you is not conducive to peace,¡± When she said Spirit-Bound her eyes once again flicked to his right arm then she looked into his eyes and raised an eyebrow questioningly. ¡°I am willing to teach you more if you are willing to tell more of what Ailish and Light wanted from you though, that¡­ thing, on your arm, is very curious, I have never seen or heard of anything like it.¡± Mike looked at her with wide eyes, he was reeling from her saying that he couldn¡¯t stay, he¡¯d thought he had found a place where he could relax for a while and learn some of the common sense that ran this world, even if it was the bumpkin kind of common sense that came from an isolated village in the middle of the forest. That and it seemed that Ina thought Mike was likely related to the ¡®Spirit-Bound¡¯ which sounded similar to what the AI had called Warlocks. Ina had been using proper nouns that he had some context for, Searer, Weaver, Spirit-Bound. It seemed that these might be the High Elves names for each of the classes or paths. Mike wondered why the AI used terms from his world instead. He collected himself taking in a deep breath, then exhaling, ¡°Thank you, Lady Ina, I would be grateful for the healing. I will not stay too long and disturb the peace that you and your people have, though I do intend to help Crosse and the hunters find whatever is causing the increase in Beast activity in the area, as thanks for him saving me from my stupidity,¡± he said. Ina nodded slowly, ¡°I might help you more if and when you achieve such a thing, this kind of aggressive behaviour from the beast is odd, and their numbers have been rising. I do not believe this is simply migration, as I have lived in this area for more than a century and have not seen it before. If you wish, I will commence with the healing,¡± She extended a hand that once again began to glow with Light Magic. Mike considered swapping in Arcane logic, but decided against it, he didn¡¯t want to experiment with healing without what seemed like very necessary education. Ina might give him that education if he opened up about some things, but he wasn¡¯t sure if that was exactly what Light was after, he had tried the stick, now it was time for the carrot. So Mike nodded and Ina¡¯s hand moved forward to touch his brow once more. The Light spread through him again but gave him a very different sensation, this time of a sapling in the sun, taking in nutrients from the earth and light from the sun and growing from their combination. The sensation only lasted a moment and ended. Mike blinked his eyes as Ina pulled her fading hand away from his forehead. ¡°You can take those bandages off of him now Crosse. He won¡¯t be suffering from those wounds anymore. I healed the leg wound the most, Metal Magic can do rather nasty things if you leave it in too long. I guess you know that though, considering how you dealt with it. Fire purification in the way you used it is reckless but effective, he will keep the scar though. ¡°The head wound was trickier, it was deeper than I expected. I was able to heal the injury and even restore the hair follicles, but that was the limit. The hair will take time to grow in over the scar and will likely be white, as I couldn¡¯t make restore the parts of the follicles that give the hair colour,¡± Ina explained clinically as Mike recovered from his first conscious exposure to healing Magic. Crosse nodded and moved to start unwrapping the bandage around Mike¡¯s head. Ina looked to Mike and continued, ¡°you are at your absolute capacity to the kind of healing I can provide, I cannot heal you again for the time you will stay here, and I recommend you avoid healing from any other High Elf for at least as long as you were sustained with the healing Magic. Most will not be as careful when healing a human as I just was, especially a servant of Light, though I suspect you will be avoiding those anyway.¡± Mike would have nodded if Crosse didn¡¯t have his hands on his head undoing the bandage. Crosse spoke up now instead, ¡°I had also hoped that you could bind Connor¡¯s bow to Mike here, but seeing as he won¡¯t be staying in the village I don¡¯t think you will allow it.¡± He sounded disappointed and a tad relieved for some reason. Ina looked to Crosse with a gentle expression, ¡°I won¡¯t bind it to him now, but if you can get the elder hunters to agree, or if he contributes meaningfully to solving this Beast problem then I will do so, the bows were made to protect the village, but are also for its protectors, so one is a fitting reward for aid in this situation. Perhaps you could teach him to use one while he waits.¡± Crosse nodded, or at least Mike thought he did, as Crosse was standing behind him. The last of the head bandage was removed and then Mike felt Crosse''s fingers inspecting his scalp, he felt no pain but there was a brief tugging sensation. ¡°We¡¯ll get out of your hair then, I¡¯ll take off the rest of these in my quarters. Up you get boy,¡± Crosse said as he grabbed Mike under the armpit and hauled him to his feet. Mike went along with it a little startled. Crosse kept hold of Mike¡¯s arm as he pulled him towards the entrance, Mike went along with him, walking backwards a few steps before turning around. He glanced over his shoulder as they left, seeing Ina still standing, hands clasped infront of herself as she watched him go. Chapter 29 - A Home Mike Followed Crosse back across the bridge that leads to Ina¡¯s home. The inert hunter¡¯s bow still clutched in one hand, though he didn¡¯t need it as he had before, his leg no longer feeling numb, had Ina cleansed the medicine that was numbing him as well? As they reached the other end of the bridge Mike looked back at the tree as he saw a flash of light from the corner of his eye. Light Magic was pouring from the tree at the point where the bridge protruded, running across it. Mike took a few steps back in surprise, afraid that the Magic was coming for him, but as the wave of Light Magic reached the meeting point of the bridge and the walkway it stopped. Mike watched as the Light sunk into the bridge and the walkway they began to glow with a different kind of Mana, the brown of wood mana. The wood of the bridge began to change in the same way that Mike had seen Ina do on a smaller scale. It looked almost to be growing in reverse, separating from the walkway a railing rising to fill the gap. Mike watched as the whole bridge retracted into Ina¡¯s tree, leaving only a smooth patch of wood where it had been. Mike just stood and stared for a second. He hadn¡¯t been able to sense the spell, but that had to have been an absolutely insane amount of mana. How much did Ina have? Or was she storing it somehow? Mike shook his head, he had no way of knowing besides asking her. ¡°Quite the sight isn¡¯t it?¡± Crosse asked, breaking Mike from his thoughts. ¡°Yeah, you weren¡¯t kidding when you said she was strong enough to defend this place on her own,¡± he answered. She was apparently strong enough to resist the direct influence of a god. Mike wondered what level the AI would give her if he understood what the AI wanted him to do, he needed to kill at least three beasts to be able to get that information just for them. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to do the same for Humans and Elves. ¡°It is interesting how you always seem to react to Magic before it happens, though,¡± Crosse said, raising an eyebrow and smirking at Mike. Mike¡¯s eye twitched, yeah, he had been doing that a lot. He might need to do some explaining soon, if not to Ina then to Crosse. Crosse continued along the walkway, heading towards a different bridge than they had crossed previously. He leads Mike through the Village of Inasholme, not stopping as they crossed between trees and went upstairs to higher levels to reach another bridge that connected to a different tree. They eventually came to a tree that Mike saw had several people dressed very similarly to Crosse, in leather padded fabric clothing and carrying bows, most of them the now distinctive hunter¡¯s bows, made of wood that seemed to be still alive. Before they entered they stopped on the bridge, Crosse turning to speak to Mike, ¡°this is the hunter¡¯s tree or hunter¡¯s barracks, all the hunters live in this tree with their families, making it by far the best-defended part of the city. Be on your best behaviour, depending on what Gonal said or did on his way back they may be¡­ mourning, in their ways,¡± Crosse explained. Mike nodded and they continued, as they walked up the tree, across walkways and upstairs. Mike looked at the hunters. They were not the majority of people, even here, but they were certainly more common here, as he hadn¡¯t seen them anywhere else in the village. There were both men and women, Mike found as he saw a pair of women in the hunter¡¯s garb leaning against a railing and talking, their bows in hand. They went up five sets of stairs before Crosse walked toward one of the doorways in the side of the tree, parting the curtain of metal leaves as he entered. Mike followed him through and looked around the new room. It wasn¡¯t overly large, and it appeared to be triangular, a bed large enough for one sunk into an alcove in the left wall. The right wall had shelves indented into it, much like Ina¡¯s study had had, they were filled with books, though there were much fewer here and they appeared to be of lower quality than the metal-bound books of Ina¡¯s. Mike leaned the inert bow against the wall by the door then made his way towards the shelves, wanting to get a closer look. He had yet to try and read anything in this world, and he had a hunch that worried him. As he was close enough and looked to the text on the spines of the books his worries were confirmed, it was written in a language that he didn¡¯t understand. He was processing this when he felt a notification from the tattoo, He was sincerely hoping that was a Reading Skill, cause not being able to read would suck.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Mike really wanted to open the notification but before he could Crosse spoke up, ¡°Welcome to My humble abode, you can stay here as long as you need,¡± he said, and Mike turned to look at the man. He had placed his bow in the corner a corner of the room, leaning up against what seemed to be a hand-carved rocking chair, one of the first pieces of furniture Mike had seen that wasn¡¯t part of the tree. As he watched Crosse grab a short wooden object off a spot on the wall. Mike took a step closer and saw that it was a wooden key, about handspan long and with the appearance of an old tumbler key, with two teeth of different lengths on one end and a ring on the other, which had been used to hang it. Crosse walked to the wall which had his bed in it and ran the key-like over the wall in a rectangle shape very similar to the size of the alcove that housed his bed, then he used the key to write something in the rectangle. The key left no marks in the wood of the tree, but Mike saw a trail of brown mana wherever the two touched. Another casual piece of Magic. ¡°In the morning, when Lady Ina reconnects her tree to the others, any alterations we request be made to our rooms with the room keys are made,¡± Crosse explained and Mike nodded in interest. After replacing the key Crosse moved to to the chair. ¡°Now let¡¯s get that bandage off you,¡± Crosse said, taking off his pack, and kneeling by the chair to rummage through it. Mike nodded and made his way over, taking a seat in the rocking chair, something he hadn¡¯t done in years. Crosse took out a pair of shears from his pack. He started to cut away the bandage on Mikes''s leg, then spoke. ¡°So, why is the god of the High Elves so interested in you?¡± Crosse asked, more bluntly than Mike had been expecting Mike sighed, he had to make a choice. Trust Crosse with everything or keep hiding as much as he could. The hunter seemed to be a good man, he had helped Mike without asking for any real compensation and had brought him to his home to stay. He had expressed intentions to train Mike in the manner of these hunters, as he likely had Connor before him. Mike looked to the bow he had leaned against the wall by the door. Crosse had seemed sincere in his confession of guilt for Connor¡¯s death. Mike didn¡¯t know if Crosse was to blame, the whole situation was a mess. He did know that if Crosse had stayed with Connor that He would be almost certainly have died, bleeding out from the head wound after having killed the peryton. He felt like he could trust the man that owned up to that though, despite not needing to explain anything, hiding it behind Mike¡¯s lack of understanding for the language. So he started to speak. *** Ina sat in her chair, the feeling of the tree comforting around her as she wrote notes on her meeting with the strange boy that Crosse had brought. Her quill making dark lines of ink into letters as she ran it over the page. The boy had been very interesting, he spoke GIldaic better than Crosse did, as if he was raised in the capital, which for a human was absurd. His story of being held by Ailish herself was also very interesting. A frown touched her lips as she thought of Ailish. The girl had been an acolyte of Light when she had left the empire, though Ailish hadn¡¯t even been born when she left the Searers. She had risen quickly in the ranks and had been praised for her, ¡®divine disposition.¡¯ A fancy way of saying that she was almost as greedy for knowledge as Light himself, and likely had even fewer compunctions on how it was obtained than he did. She had certainly lost a rather great prize for him this time though. This Mike seemed to have some kind of Spirit bonded to him, one that could protect itself and him from the full force of her examination, and that she had no experience with or knowledge of. She only knew that it seemed to be linked to that tattoo that had been revealed by her examination spell. A Dark Magic Illusion, it had hidden in the manner of the Dark Elves, was it a spirit of Dark mana then? That would explain why the Dark Elf had helped the boy escape. Pain tried to protect Dark mana Spirits as best he could, though that usually meant just keeping them away from other spirits, who very much disliked the Spirits of fear, pain, and obscurity that they usually were. Ina suddenly felt a presence from within her soul and then her Magic escaped her, not under her control, coalescing behind her into a complex illusion. She clenched her jaw in annoyance, knowing that her eyes were currently slitted, like that bastards. She took a deep breath and didn¡¯t try to take control back immediately. Instead, she stood and faced the illusion. It was of a High Elf Like man, who was very obviously not a High Elf. Oh, he had the golden skin and pointed ears, his hair even brighter, yellow-golden, long and loose. But he also had horns. Long curved horns that rose swept back over his head and fine scales that covered his cheeks and ran down the side of his face to be concealed by his robes. Lastly were his eyes, they were beacons of light that illuminated the room in front of him, Ina looked into them. No High Elf feared the glare of the even the sun, and these were not it''s match. ¡°What do you want, Light?¡± she asked. Chapter 30 - A God ¡°I want to give you some details on your little village¡¯s latest visitor,¡± the illusion of a god said. He looked around the room with his beacon-like gaze. Ina didn¡¯t know if this is truly what the god looked like, he almost always appeared in this manner, through the illusions of one of his followers. She was partial to the idea that it wasn¡¯t, he had presented himself differently throughout the history of the High Elves, in the early years usually in the form of a giant dragon, though that was a hazy time, even for the Eternal High elves, none had survived that period¡­ intact. ¡°And what is it that you wish to tell me of him? and what is your price?¡± she asked, watching the god, knowing that any tell of body language or expression she saw was simply a projection, this creature would show her nothing that it did not intend for her to see. She knew she would never truly see it surprised, angry or anything else unless it wanted to. ¡°No price, this information I give you for free, simply for once having given me your devotion. The Human boy is not from this realm. I do not know where he comes from. According to those that retrieved him, he came from a Shard,¡± the god said, watching her for a reaction. She did not have perfect control of herself, as he did. She had not needed it in the past century, dealing only with the villagers, whom she had next to nothing that she needed to actively hide from them. Due to this, she knew that her soul pulsed with interest in this new information, another piece of the puzzle, and she knew that Light could tell. She had worked for years to turn the gifts that light had given her as a novice into tools to stop him from prying into her thoughts, but she only had so much. Light smiled, ¡°I see that the inquisitiveness that was fostered in you by my teachings is not dead... Yes, he came from a shard, and he did not originate from anywhere in this realm prior to that,¡± Light clarified further. ¡°So you suspect him to be from another realm? Could he not have been created wholesale by the Shard, I do not doubt those volatile things are capable of it,¡± she said, wanting Light to justify why he suspected that. ¡°The boy appears to have a personality of his own, and also a spirit that reeks of Chaos; more so than even Pain. It is either something directly from that place, or beyond it,¡± Light replied. ¡°So you wish to learn of him then? To have a servant pry the knowledge from his brain, leaving him broken. All so that knowledge can be yours, and no one else''s?¡± she replied, knowing the answer. ¡°No, I wish to have that knowledge so that it may benefit the people I rule. The methods used to obtain it are unimportant, you expressed your distastes for the methods I give my servants when you left their order. Well, now you have a chance to prove them wrong, gain the knowledge how you would see it done, and give it to me,¡± Light said smiling at her, in what she took as a condescending manner. Ina rose an eyebrow, ¡°and that will change the way you teach them in the future, is this such important knowledge that you would do such a thing?¡± she asked, sceptical. ¡°It may make me think to give you the opportunity to try again in this method in the future, you have not progressed on my path for centuries, and are reaching the boundaries of what you can gain by staring into the sun and feeling it on your skin, you would be a new form of servant, no less powerful than the others,¡± he offered, his expression of understanding and approval not shifting at all. Ina sighed, ¡°but still a servant,¡± she said. She finally released the control she had been focusing in a part of her soul that she had managed to partition off from the god''s awareness, using it to regain control of the mana that was channelling from her to create the illusion of Light¡¯s presence. The god vanished, and the feeling of his attention on her faded not long after, he had said his piece. It was up to her to take his offer now or leave it. She didn¡¯t like that, no matter what she did to learn of this boy now Light would take it as having followed his orders, unless she kept the knowledge from him entirely, which was hard enough already for the knowledge that mattered most to her. She sighed, ¡°Scaly Bastard.¡± *** Mike sat in the rocking chair with a light orb floating above his hand, the overhand trailing black smoke, a Chill Touch prepared to cast. He had told Crosse of his entire experiences in the Prison, explaining to him that he had a spirit stitched to his soul and that it allowed him to sense and control mana that was outside his body.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Crosse, entirely reasonably, had asked for proof. Though he had looked pretty convinced already. Now he was staring slack-jawed at the light orb that Mike had cast and the Dark Magic trailing from his other. ¡°So this is you doing this no this, AI, or spirit or Whatever?¡± Crosse asked, eyes never leaving the Magic. Mike nodded, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it is helping a lot, especially at my current ability. It has made it so that I can only use a certain number of Magic types at a time, though for now I only really have Light and Dark,¡± He hadn¡¯t explained Skill Slots or the more detailed mechanics of the AI¡¯s interface to Crosse. It would require too much-ingrained terminology from Earth and he wasn¡¯t sure if it would translate well or even at all. Crosse¡¯s gaze slid from the Magic too Mikes face. ¡°Is this Unique to you, can it be taught?¡± Crosse asked, eyes intense, with emotion, though what emotion Mike didn¡¯t know. Mike shook his head slowly, ¡°I don¡¯t know, I just woke up and I was like this,¡± He explained, not wanting to give the hunter too much hope, but not wanting to dash it. Spreading his abilities was the main reason he had chosen Wizard, and he wouldn¡¯t give up on that, but he needed a lot more practice and experience for that. ¡°You can see magic too, you said so in your story. That is why you keep reacting to magic in advance?¡± Crosse asked, eyes interested and eager. Mike nodded, this was a new side of Crosse, the older man was enthusiastic and interested, while he had been jovial but stoic for the most part up to now. Mike didn¡¯t blame the man, He would be the same if had Magic shoved into his hands with no other disruptions in his way of life. His Magic had come with being teleported to a foreign dimension and imprisoned by knowledge hungry Elves that had very few compunctions on how they got that knowledge. He had had little time to bask in the fact that he could do Magic yet, and it was great that Crosse was able to feel that now. Mike looked back to Crosse now making as serious a face as he could, ¡°I need you to promise that you won¡¯t tell any of this to Ina,¡± Mike said. ¡°You have known her for probably most of your life, but the fact that she was connected to Light through the soul seemed like news to you. She obviously has secrets, I want to see if she will respect mine without prying before I choose to tell her anything,¡± Mike explained. Crosse stood and thought for a few moments, ¡°That is reasonable, I think you should trust her, but as you said; I have known her my whole life. I will say this, she has never hurt anyone from this village as far as I know. She leaves us to govern ourselves, only requiring peace and quiet when we do not need her help. ¡°I think if you told her the extent of your abilities she would help, to the best of hers. Mostly out of curiosity, but also because she would see you as something new, something that could change this world that she is sitting in this village ignoring for some reason,¡± Crosse finished. Mike leaned his head back and thought, Crosse was right that Ina had done little to deserve his suspicion; besides be a High Elf and being connected to a god that wanted to dissect his soul. He needed more time, for now, he brought up the notification that the AI had sent him earlier.
You have received a Quest:
Quest Log Quest Description Quest Objective Quest Rewards
Learning to Read The AI had to prioritize in its learning while you were in the hands of the High Elves, this lead it to choose to learn spoken words to give you the ability to communicate as easily as possible. You are now out of their grasp and in need of the ability to read. The AI, however, does not have a Skill prepared to aid you in this learning. To create one, it needs more information. This information can be gained in multiple ways. Having someone who can read, reading aloud written text. A dictionary that defined the meanings of written words and their make up. or someone actively teaching you to read are all ways that this information can be gained. Help the AI reach 100% understanding of a single written version of a fully acclimated language. 0%/100% Level 1 of the Reading Skill.
Crosse watched as Mike read the window, walking around him to look at the screen, then blinking, ¡°What language is that?¡± He asked. Mike blinked as he finished reading when Crosse asked, then chuckled, appreciating the irony. ¡°One that I can read, Interestingly enough what it says is that I can¡¯t read and that I need help to learn to do so. This is one of the ways the spirit has been helping me, it gives me objectives and goals to complete, and rewards me when I complete them,¡± he explained. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have a Gildaic Dictionary on that shelf would you?¡± Mike asked, pointing at the shelf of nearly two dozen leather-bound tomes. Crosse blinked, he seemed to be proccing confusion, ¡°So, you don¡¯t know how to read Gildaic? But you do know how to read this spirit¡¯s messages?¡± Crosse asked. Mike thought for a second, ¡°That¡¯s as good a way to explain it as any, I don¡¯t know how to speak Gildaic either, the spirit is just translating it for me constantly in real-time so that I can communicate.¡± Crosse once again looked kind of baffled, ¡°Your spirit is weird¡­ I still want one though.¡± Chapter 31 - New Day Mike¡¯s eyes blinked open. He yawned, looking around to confirm that yes, this time he actually knew where he was and hadn¡¯t been moved mysteriously in his sleep. That particular trauma would take some time to get over. He put his head back down against the mat that Crosse had laid out for him. He was still in this fantasy world. Each time he drifted off to sleep he felt the vague hope that he would wake up at home in bed. He hadn¡¯t even dreamt of home since coming here. Though he had only gone to sleep properly twice, he wasn¡¯t sure if passing out from blood loss counted. Mike blinked the blurriness from his eyes and sat up. What time was it? He wondered if the AI would tell him if he asked. ¡°What time is it?¡± he asked the air. Nothing happened. He snorted, was a long shot anyway. Mike heard a rustling from the other side of the room and saw Crosse sitting up in his bed. He looked at Mike with more alertness than anyone should have at this time of the morning. ¡°Were you talking to your weird spirit thing? Does it usually give you the time?¡± he asked, looking curious. Mike sighed, though it turned into a yawn, which made him conscious of his morning breath. Before he could ask what the people here did to deal with that something smacked against his chest. He looked down and saw a pale green fruit. ¡°Eat that,¡± Cross said, an almost Identical fruit in his hand as he bit down into it, revealing an interior that reminded Mike of an apple, but light blue. Mike did as told, biting into the fruit. A familiar flavour filled his mouth and his eyes widened as he chewed and swallowed the fruit. ¡°Mint!¡± he said and took another bite, and it really did taste like mint, though it had a very similar texture to an apple. Crosse looked at him funny but didn¡¯t speak up as he took another bite of his fruit. Mike thought about the AI and time as he ate the fruit. He wondered if he could make an Illusory clock, he hadn¡¯t had much chance to fiddle with his spells yet, but he would love to just sit and experiment with minor illusion to see if it was possible. So he would. Glancing at Crosse he willed the AI to open his Skills window.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Stealth ? AGI/PER Amateur 2
Unarmed Combat STR/END Amateur 1
Mental Skills
Skill Slots 2
Language ? INT/WIS Novice 12
Acting ? WIS/WIL Novice 11
Arcane Logic INT/WIS Amateur 3
Cooking PER/DEX Amateur 1
Medicine INT/WIS Amateur 1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots 3
Mana Sight ? ATU/PERUnauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Amateur 3
Light Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 4
Light Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Dark Magic ? AFI/CON Amateur 4
Dark Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Arcane Magic AFI/CON Amateur 1
Metal Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
Fire Magic Resistance RES/ATU Amateur 1
He moved the Checkmark from Acting into Arcane Logic. It was becoming apparent that he was already decently proficient in acting, it seemed that being a Novice meant more than just having a higher number. He had only gained a single level in acting while he had it equipped for almost as long as language, which he had yet to unequip. It seemed that unless he was going to actively try and practice acting or was going to try and pull off a lie that was beyond his skill, he wouldn¡¯t be getting pointers from the Skill. With Arcane Logic now equipped, Mike took a second to feel the mana around him. He could feel the Light mana that the tree still emanated, and the Dark mana in the pouch of gems. Before he could actually start doing any Magic though, there was a knocking from the front of the room. He lifted his head and looked to Crosse, willing the Skill window to vanish, not wanting whoever was here to see it. Crosse stood from his bed where he had been eating his minty-apple-thing and went to the curtain of metal leaves, he brushed them aside to reveal a hunter on the other side. It was a man similar in height and colouring to Crosse and carrying his bow in one hand. ¡°Crosse,¡± the man greeted with a nod. ¡°Ranlyn,¡± Crosse returned, nodding back. ¡°What brings you here so early?¡± he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. ¡°Gonal has reported the death of his son to the hunter elders. They would like to talk with you today at noon to clear up the story, as Gonal obviously wasn¡¯t there to see any of it, he says that you told him that it was your fault that the boy died. The elders would like clarification,¡± This new hunter, Ranlyn, explained. Crosse nodded, ¡°I will see them at noon then.¡± Ranlyn nodded in recognition one last time, then turned and left. Crosse sighed deeply, looking into the distance, then he tapped the wall beside the door and Mike saw a line of Light Magic trail from the spot and reach the ceiling. The ceiling started to glow a soft white, illuminating the room evenly. Mike had seen Crosse turn the lights out last night after they had gone to one of the trees by the river to clean up and eaten some food that was delivered to Crosse''s quarters. He had been too tired to inspect it then, and before he could do so now, Crosse turned and spoke to him. ¡°Get dressed, Lady Ina was right that it would be a waste to give you a hunter¡¯s bow if you have no idea how to use one. We are going to the practice yard to teach you how to handle a bow. You told me that this Spirit of yours helps you learn quickly? Time to show that off.¡± *** The practice yard, it turned out, was right above Crosse¡¯s quarters. After they had gotten dressed, Crosse needing to lend Mike some pants while his were being mended. They had made their way up the set of stairs on Crosse¡¯s level of the hunters'' barracks. These stairs were longer than the previous sets and wound all the way around the tree, up into its branches. At the peak of the tree, there was a wide circular platform. Branches extending out in all directions around its edge, except one. There was equipment up here, bows, arrows, staves and other training equipment. Crosse lead Mike to the edge of the platform that didn¡¯t have branches extending out from it. Mike looked out in awe at the view. The platform faced the forest, not the village. It looked out into the canopy of the nearby trees, cleared only slightly by the lack of the branches of this tree extending out in this direction. The huge branches were littered with the golden leaves of the gild leaf trees, that glittered in the light of the morning sun. Grown out from those branches at intervals were targets. They were all over, and each of them, from the nearest, was riddled with arrows. From the nearest, less than five metres away, to the furthest, which had to be almost 200 metres away. Crosse went to the side of the platform, leaving Mike to gape. He came back with a longbow. Mike looked at it, not a hunter¡¯s bow, it didn¡¯t have that telltale grain pattern curved with the bow, as if they had been grown into their shape. No, this one had been carved and sanded. Mike took the bow, it was already strung and Mike put two fingers on the string, wanting to test its draw weight, which he suspected would be rather high. Before he could Crosse thwacked the side of his wrist with his bow. Mike yelped and pulled back his hand. ¡°If I ever see you try and dry fire any of the bows up here, you¡¯ll get a lot worse than that,¡± Crosse said, giving Mike a stern look. Mike nodded, feeling sheepish. Crosse looked out at the range, and Mike followed his gaze. ¡°Any moment now,¡± Crosse said, apparently waiting for something. Then Mike felt something, he spun, facing towards Ina¡¯s trees, eyes widening. Mike could feel Light mana from there, it wasn¡¯t even in his attunement range, but there was so much of it that it was creating waves of Light mana in the Aether. As Mike looked that way he saw that Ina¡¯s tree was surrounded by a nimbus of dense Light mana. When she had been in his Attunement sense yesterday Mike had thought of her as a beacon of Light mana, but now he knew he was wrong. The amount of mana that Ina controlled wasn¡¯t just confined to her body, her whole tree was a giant battery, and Mike could see the bridge that Ina had retracted behind them yesterday now growing back out and connecting to the rest of the village. The Light mana around the tree sunk into it as the branches connected and ran down it. Mike watched in awe as the Light mana spread to the next tree in a wave and across to the trees connected to it by the bridges, and then again to the trees connected to them. The wave of Light mana reached their tree and Mike seized some of the thick light mana from the Aether. He didn¡¯t channel it into a spell, he just controlled the brilliant white nimbus of mana under his control and pressed it against the wood of the tree at his feet, just in time for the wave of Light mana that was Ina¡¯s spell to reach them. Mike felt the spell, It was a manipulation of Light that was made to mimic the way that plants grew in sunlight, it wasn¡¯t the same kind of academic and scientific understanding that he usually got when using Light Magic. He could feel the way that the spell spread through the living wood, making it move and change. Intricately growing in the ways that Ina desired it to. He spun as the wave of Magic moved past him and he lost the feeling of it. He felt the sensation of a notification from his arm but didn¡¯t check it immediately. He watched the wave of Light Magic continue out and along the branches to the sides of the tree, it interestingly didn¡¯t cover the leaves. As it reached the targets Mike saw them glow brightly, more so than branches. The wooden arrows that filled the targets sank into them, leaving them as smooth round discs, their surfaces textured by the concentric ring pattern of a tree stump. Mike gaped through all of this. His concept of Ina¡¯s power kept getting blown away. If Mike was correct she could have easily used that very same spell to kill everyone in the village, making the light mana shape the wood into deadly stakes. She used this amount of Magic daily just to upkeep the lives of the villagers that surrounded her. Was this even a drain on her reserves of mana? Before he could go on a tangent as to exactly how much mana Ina could control, Mike willed the AI to show him the notification. Congratulations you have learned the spell:
Spells Mastery Level Requirements Mana Cost Cast Time Duration Description
Grow Living Wood Novice Light Magic - Amateur Variable instantaneous N/A Use Light mana to fuel the growth of Living wood, with some influence over the direction and shape of that growth.
Crosse watched Mike as all of this happened. ¡°I assume that was much more interesting to you than it was to the rest of us?¡± he asked as Mike read over the description of his new spell. Mike just looked at him, then nodded his head once. Chapter 32 - Bowmanship ¡°What did you see?¡± Crosse asked, his curiosity about Magic still evidently intact. ¡°Her spell,¡± Mike replied, as he looked down at the raw mana that he had controlled, it was almost all gone now, having dissipated into natural light. He let it go and channelled more into the Mortal realm, under his Control. He took a step to the edge of the platform and pressed his hand to the outside of the railing where an odd growth of wood would likely be less noticeable. Then he cast his new spell, focusing on that aspect of the Light mana that he had felt from Ina¡¯s spell, though both the deftness and scale with which she had used it were vastly beyond his ability. The Light mana sunk into the wood, but for the first time the spell mana didn¡¯t just vanish from his control, he could feel it still, wanting direction, so he commanded it to grow out into a branch. The spell obeyed and after only a few moments all the mana he had used, more than 40 Light mana, was gone. A spindly branch had grown out of the side of the railing, less than a couple of centimetres in width and only about thirty centimetres long. It had taken about 10 seconds, but Mike wasn¡¯t sure what he had expected. This was a great example of exactly how much mana had been in that surge of a spell. Mike looked up from the small stick to Crosse who had followed him. He was looking down at the tiny branch with eyebrows raised, he flicked his eyes up to Mikes. ¡°That it?¡± he said, the corner of his lip coming up slightly. Mike rolled his eyes. ¡°You were going to teach me how to use a bow?¡± he said, lifting the longbow that was still in his hand. ¡°I was. Though after our meeting with the elders at noon, I would very much like to know how you did that,¡± Crosse said, his interest only slightly masked by his performance. Mike snorted, ¡°Sure, though I don¡¯t know how much I can help, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m doing this on my own or if this thing is just doing what I ask it to,¡± he said, raising his arm that currently had the tattoos unhidden on it, the AI apparently seeing no reason to re-disguise it after it had already been made. Crosse frowned slightly, ¡°You said you don¡¯t know exactly how it came around? What do you know?¡± he asked, obviously very interested in the tattoo. He began to walk back towards the archery range. When they got there, Crosse handed Mike an arrow. Mike took it, he hadn''t seen the man grab one from one of the numerous stocks of them about. The arrow itself was entirely wood, sharp and thin at the tip. Thin hairlike protrusions that looked like roots protruding out in neat rows at the other end, likely to act as fletching. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see you draw that thing with an arrow in it like you are supposed to,¡± Crosse said, leaning a hip against the railing and watching Mike with his arms crossed. Mike knocked the arrow to the string under a convenient metal nub that was on it, then raised the bow. He looked down the arrow at the range and pulled back the string as far as he could. Which turned out to be only about fifteen centimetres. He held the arrow there for a few seconds before he relaxed his arms and let out a breath, then he felt the distinct sensation of a notification from the tattoo. He glanced at Crosse who was making a thoughtful frown. ¡°You are a little stronger than I expected you to be. Hand that one here and I¡¯ll get a more appropriate one for teaching you. If Lady Ina deigns to bond you to Connor¡¯s bow it will adjust itself for your use, giving the most appropriate draw weight for you,¡± he said. Mike nodded and handed him the bow, he went to the side where the other bows were lined and unstrung it and placed it back, then grabbed a narrower, though not much shorter bow. Mike held the bow and found it not much lighter than the previous one, though the limbs of the bows had a more outward curve to them, curving back around again towards the ends of the limbs. ¡°A recurve bow?¡± Mike asked, feeling some nostalgia. He had only used a bow once back on Earth, in primary school, he had gone on a camp in grade six. They had gotten to sleep in cabins and try out new things, one of which had been archery. He had very much enjoyed it, loving the high focus on skill and less on general aptitude. like so many other sports required. He had gone home from that camp and asked his parents if he could do archery, looking up all about it on the internet. They had meandered about it and eventually decided that it was too expensive and inconvenient. When he could just play soccer with his older brother. He didn¡¯t blame them, it wasn¡¯t like his school had an archery club or he had anywhere to .really practice it, it really had been inconvenient. One of Crosse¡¯s eyebrows rose again. ¡°You are rather well educated for someone who can¡¯t remember past a few days ago,¡± Crosse said with a smirk. Mike had to cover another wince. He really wasn¡¯t doing well at pretending to be an amnesiac peasant, despite his Novice level in acting. To cover for the reaction he had the AI give him the notification that it had alerted him of. You have unlocked the Physical Skill:
Governing Stats Requirements Mastery Max Mastery Description
Bowmanship DEX PER 10 DEX, 8 STR Amateur NoviceThe genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Bowmanship is the Skill that teaches you how to handle bows, both in and out of combat. At amateur levels, it teaches you how to properly draw and aim accurately while stationary.
Nice! That would probably make this a little more pleasant, though he didn¡¯t know how it would play with Crosse actively teaching him how to do things. ¡°What¡¯s that one say?¡± Crosse asked as he saw the window appear. ¡°The A-Spirit gives me Skills, they are how I learn things faster, Like how to speak. The one that I just got is a skill for Archery called ¡®Bowmanship¡¯ because it apparently likes to follow a naming scheme.¡± he explained, eliciting a look of suspicion from Crosse. ¡°Bowmanship aye? Well, that is as good a name for it as any, so how does it help you learn it? Does it control your body?¡± Crosse asked. Mike shrugged then nodded. ¡°That¡¯s kinda what it feels like, though the Spirit says that it alters my muscle memory. Making it so that my body already knows how to do the actions properly and does them instinctively when I try. By getting used to the actions I get better at the skill,¡± Mike explained, though he didn¡¯t go into Magic or Mental Skills, as he wasn¡¯t entirely sure how they worked exactly, despite the AI¡¯s explanation. He was starting to think that eh AI needed a proper name, he had been calling it spirit to Crosse, and AI to himself, but were either accurate? He needed to think of a name that described what the AI did as much as what it was. ¡°There is also a limit for the number of Skills I can use at a time, that is supposed to go up as I get better, so I have to swap them out when I want to use different ones, which does this to me,¡± he said as he opened his Skills window, willing it to show only the Physical Skills.
Skills Equipped Governing Stats Mastery Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots 2
Knife FIghting ? AGI/DEX Amateur 3
Stealth ? AGI/PER Amateur 2
Unarmed Combat STR/END Amateur 1
Bowmanship DEX/PER Amateur 1
He moved the Checkmark from Knife fighting into Bowmanship, he probably wouldn¡¯t be learning to stab people any better just yet, but he had already gained a level in Stealth just by mimic Crosse. As he did that telltale total physical freeze came over him, though it felt slightly different in a way he couldn¡¯t describe for each aspect¡¯s Skills. Crosse watched and frowned at Mike¡¯s sudden complete stillness, ¡°Well that is an inconvenient handicap on a very useful ability. So it alters your muscle memory? Show me, draw the bow again,¡± Crosse commanded. Mike obeyed, nocking the arrow once more and pulling it back. This time he felt the Skill¡¯s assistance, and the draw weight of the bow wasn¡¯t too high. He was able to smoothly draw the string back to his cheek with the nocked arrow just under his eye, the shaft of the arrow resting atop the grip of the bow in a groove obviously for the purpose. Mike felt his breath slow down and his back straightened. His feet adjusting slightly. So that his knees were no longer bent, though one foot was now at an angle to the other. Mike kept going, following the feeling as he looked down the arrow at the second nearest target. He let go of the string and the arrow shot out. It missed, sailing about a foot above the target. Mike blinked then scowled as he heard Crosse chuckle. He looked to the older man and watched as he stood straight from his leaning position. ¡°That wasn¡¯t bad, the posture is a little different to what I would recommend, but otherwise it works, I¡¯m curious where this spirit learned that style," Crosse said, so pointedly not asking that he may as well have been shouting. Mike didn''t answer. Only partially because he didn''t know for certain, but he had watched quite a bit of Olympic archery, and that posture had seemed familiar. Though more practical. "Well, are you going to teach me how to do it properly then?" Mike asked, even though he was pretty sure that if he just kept trying, he would get the hang of it eventually. Crosse did show him, He taught Mike every minute detail of what he had done wrong the first time and when he pulled back the bow with an arrow knocked again, It barely felt like the Skill was working. They stayed up there for hours, Crosse showing Mike how to fire a bow. He taught Mike how to stand, how to breathe, and how to grip the bow. By the end of it, Mike was hitting the first four targets consistently. Mike smiled, despite the strain, he was feeling in his arms and shoulders from the continuous drawing of the bow, when he fired the bow and hit the target that was about thirty metres away. The furthest target he had hit yet. Crosse nodded approvingly. ¡±You weren¡¯t kidding when you said that you learn fast, you somehow manage to stop making mistakes immediately after I point them out,¡± he said. then glanced up at the sky through the canopy of golden leaves that surrounded them. ¡°It is about time we head towards that meeting,¡± Crosse said his mouth turning down at the corners. Mike saw his solemn expression and nodded. Crosse showed him how to unstring the bow he had been using and put it back where it came from. Then they made their way down the steps from the platform. As they made their way down Mike asked something that had been bothering him, ¡°What are these hunter elders going to do? Punish you in some way for what happened to Connor? I know I haven¡¯t spoken up on this yet, but I don¡¯t think his death was your fault.¡± Crosse sighed as he walked in front of Mike on the narrow stair. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I agree with you, and I know that Gonal definitely doesn¡¯t. The hunter elders are those of us hunters who lived long enough to retire, there are 7 of them, and the retiree age is 50. There are currently 87 hunters in this village. I hope that gives you some idea of the survival rate of hunters.¡± Crosse shook his head, Mike unable to see his expression, only the white peppered blonde hair on the back of his head. ¡°Some of them will agree with you, others won¡¯t. We will see.¡± They reached the walkway that had Crosses quarters on it and continued towards the next set of stairs. Before they reached it though Mike felt something. He turned and saw that Ina¡¯s tree had burst into light again. The Light Magic ran down her bridge to the nearest tree but didn¡¯t fully envelop it as it had before. It stopped at the levels of the bridges and continued along them, then Mike heard something ominous. There was a loud sound of a gong striking, then again this time coming from the trees that the pulse of Magic had spread too. When he heard the sound Crosse straightened and had his bow in his had almost faster than Mike could perceive. ¡°Beast!¡± Crosse said and started running down the stairs. Chapter 33 - Sun-Gazer Mike followed Crosse, watching around him as the whole village burst into motion. He could see villagers on the other trees, each of them was dashing for the nearest opening or doorway, scooping up kids and leaving behind objects in their wake. He focused on following Crosse down the flights of stairs on the hunter¡¯s barracks. These stairs were precarious enough without going down them distracted. After two more flights of stairs, they arrived at the level in the middle of the tree, where Mike was surprised to find a gathering of more than 30 people in hunters attire. They were men and women, varying from Mike¡¯s age to Crosse¡¯s none appeared much older or younger here. ¡°Stay with me and keep out of the way. Those eyes of yours could come in very handy, but you aren¡¯t a hunter and don¡¯t know our protocols,¡± Crosse said softly to Mike. He nodded in assent as they reached the group. Wanting to ask what was going on but staying quiet as Crosse had said. The hunters stood in a loose group, not making ranks or standing orderly like Mike imagined soldiers would on a staging ground, which is what he assumed this was. They were all quiet however and watching Ina¡¯s tree. No new hunters joined the group and Mike kept his eyes on Ina¡¯s tree as the hunters did. There was soon another pulse of Light magic that ran from the tree and across the bridge, this one much weaker than the previous ones, not having triggered Mike''s attunement sense by making waves in the aether as the last one had. It progressed to the next tree and spread out, this time not enveloping the whole tree in its path, instead, splitting and going straight to the bridges and running to the next trees. Mike watched as the Light Magic ran from tree to tree across the bridges, they didn¡¯t follow every bridge and seemed to be heading in a specific direction. Mike glanced down at the back of his hand, which was once again disguised by the AI. As he looked though, the compass of the Navigation system appeared. It had changed slightly, a cartoon-like rendition of one of the Inasholme trees sitting at the centre of the compass. There was a black gemstone slightly off centre to the south. Mike thought of the pouch in his coat pocket. There was a backpack symbol just behind him but it looked smaller, to indicate elevation? He looked at the Light Magic as it made its way across the village. If Ina¡¯s tree was the one at the centre... ¡°West,¡± He said under his breath. Right after he said it one of the split Light spells sunk into one of the trees on the west side of the village and Mike heard that telltale gong sound. All of the hunters started moving at once, running towards the bridge, bows in hand. Mike lagged dumbly for a second, not having expected such synchronization from the disorganized group. He started to run then too, lagging only a second behind the hunters. Crosse slowed slightly to move back beside him but he obviously expected Mike to keep up with the pack, not something he had a lot of experience with. As they made their way towards the tree that had sounded the gong, Mike heard another two gong sound from trees nearby that one. As they reached the tree that had first signalled, the pack split. One group of hunters, including Crosse and thus Mike, went for the stairs on this tree. The other group continuing on. When he reached the next level, Mike was able to see that the Pack had split again, going over two different bridges connected to this tree to reach two trees on either side of it. Mike continued following Crosse as the group made their way, still running, up the stairs of this tree to its top level. He could feel his legs getting tired halfway and the ache starting to set in again at the top of the next flight. He was struggling to keep up, puffing his breath by the time they reached the top of this tree. The hunters ran around the walkway to a point that faced away from the village, the other two trees and hunter teams at their peaks visible from here. When Mike looked and saw that the hunter teams to either side of them were just getting in position there was once again another sound of a gong, this time from down below on the forest floor. Mike approached the railing with all of the hunters, who made a straight line against the railing. ¡°Who is the skeleton?¡± Mike heard a feminine voice ask, and turned his head to look. He found a woman who could be anywhere from five to ten years his senior looking him over. Her red-tinted blonde eyebrows rose as she got a clearer look at his face, ¡°and who did that to his poor head. It looks like someone tried to cut his hair with a cleaver.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Crosse responded in Gildaic. Which Mike realised the woman was speaking only as Crosse replied, explaining why he had understood her at all. ¡°The skeleton, as you so aptly dubbed him, is a stray I picked up in the forest while on a hunt. He was with me when the alarm sounded and he hasn¡¯t been around long enough to know the protocols here, and I trust him to not be dumb enough to get in the way up here. He can also understand you. You picked the wrong language to talk behind his back with,¡± Crosse replied with a wry tone to the woman. The woman¡¯s pale face flushed slightly at being called out and caught, she didn¡¯t seem to phased otherwise though, and just shrugged and said something in Manish this time, ¡°He doesn¡¯t speak Manish?¡± She asked. ¡°He speaks Manish very poorly,¡± Crosse replied in the same language. Last night after Mike had explained himself and asked for a dictionary. Crosse confessed to not having one, but he had been willing to help Mike progress his verbal understanding of Manish, just to see how it worked. Language hadn¡¯t levelled up, but Mike could now actually speak Manish, sort of, Crosse said he sounded like either a five-year-old and had a worse vocabulary. As the two continued to talk in Manish, Mike now only understanding a few words each sentence, he finally took the chance to look over the railing towards the ground, his eyes were immediately drawn to something incredible. Standing on the ground between the three huge trees was a slim figure, who still managed to draw all of Mike¡¯s attention. Ina stood there, her hair bound behind her in a long silver ponytail. She was dressed in elaborate robes, though of a very different style to the ones he had seen in the Facility. They were white, as those had been, but these were embellished with plates of polished reflective metal. They covered her shoulders and ran down her arms, and were so polished as to be mirrors. As Mike finished inspecting her, she began to speak. ¡°Come forth, Mad Spirit, born wrongly into this realm of mortals. Driven mad by your hunger for Magic, come and face me, a Sun-Gazer, if you wish to pass through this village and wreak havoc as you desire!¡± She bellowed at a volume impossible for her tiny frame. Mike was able to see the waves of Light Mana that carried her voice out as an illusion of sound. In response to her declaration, the ground shook. There was the sound of creaking wood and thin metal brushing together. Then there was a thunderclap. It was so loud that it rocked back Mike and the hunters. Another pulse of Magic spread out from Ina, It reached the bases of the trees and then vanished. The ground shook again and Mike could hear the sound of electricity. Not the sound of a static shock or a live wire, no, he had only heard this sound a few times. While watching videos of active tesla coils and standing near high voltage power lines. The warbling and sharp sound of arcing electricity grew closer and Mike could now see the shape in the forest, moving towards them the cobalt glow of electricity lighting it to his eyes. As the Beast, or Mad Spirit as Ina had called it, came into view, Mike got flashbacks of watching The Two Towers for the first time, of building a model for a fantasy table-top wargame. It was a Treant, one formed from a gild-leaf tree of this forest. It thankfully stood only half as tall as the surrounding trees, and only a third as tall as one of the Inasholme trees. But between its metal leaves arced lightning, that was the only way that Mike could think of it. All of its golden leaves were charged with blue electricity and it jumped and arc between them as the tree walked on two legs as thick as hardwood trees back on earth. As it drew closer two limbs lowered from among its crown of branches, they were charred on the surface and covered with golden leaves but made for approximations of arms that arced with the lightning of the canopy of leaves. It clapped them together at what looked like it forearms, in movement much faster than Mike imagined such a creature could move, and there was another thunderclap. Mike braced himself for it, but this time the sound was muted, audible, but almost fake sounding as if¡­ reproduced. The spell Ina had cast after the first must have been an Illusion that both dampened the sound around the trees and reproduced it at non-threatening levels, or so Mike assumed. As Mike thought this the branch crown of the Lightning Treant, as that was all Mike could think to call it, tilted back and revealed a split in the bar under it that vaguely resembled a mouth, and from it issued a roar that sounded like a mix between shattering wood and thunder. Chapter 34 - True Magic Ina responded to the provocation by bursting into motion. She ran straight towards the giant creature, and to the left, and the right. She had created Illusions of herself and Mike couldn¡¯t tell which one was the real her. The Treant didn¡¯t seem too bothered by the action though and It took a step forward with one trunk like limb and swung its crown of golden leaves, arcing with electricity. There was a sudden flash of neon light and the three forms of Ina were struck by golden lightning bolts. The hunters didn¡¯t seem disturbed by this though. Each of them held their bows steady and reached out to touch the railing of the tree. Mike watched as they drew arrows from the tree itself, as he had seen Crosse do from his bow. These arrows were different from those though. Each had an arrowhead of gleaming gold that had an aura of gold that could only be Metal mana. All three Inas simply vanished. Leaving the field clear of any sign of her. Mike then saw a bolt of Light mana shoot up from a spot to the right of the Treant and in the middle of a shaft of sunlight that shone down through the canopy. The mana reached about three metres high then shifted into a tiny white dot that hovered in the air. All of the hunters drew back their new arrows and fired at the dot in the same moment that Ina appeared from invisibility in the shaft of sunlight. Everything that happened next was simply too fast for Mike to truly understand it in the moment. There was a bolt of lightning that ripped its way towards Ina from the leaves of the Treant¡¯s crown. There was a glint from the Mirror-like plates covering Ina¡¯s arms as they reflected the direct sunlight. Then there was a flash of heat and light and suddenly there was a line of fire running between Ina and the Treant. Mike watched wide-eyed as he saw all of the arrows that the three groups of hunters had fired at the spot above and in front of Ina float to the ground as ash. The Treant roared again and Mike saw that one of its arms and almost a fourth of the branches of its crown had been sheared off. The shorn branches of its crown and the stump of its arm were charred black on the ends, where whatever spell Ina had cast had cut them off like a hot knife through butter. Ina moved backwards elegantly, seemingly unbothered by the roar of rage. She spoke as she walked back, but this time Mike didn''t understand her. Her speech didn''t sound like the gibberish of an unacclimated language. Instead, it sounded like wind through leaves and the crackling of a fire in the hearth, then alternated into the sound of gale force winds breaking leaves and the roar of an inferno. Mike felt the tingle of a notification from the tattoo and had to restrain himself from immediately checking it, this wasn''t the time or place. The Treant took a step forward covering as much ground than Ina had, in one step. Then to Mike''s surprise, it began to laugh, or at least Mike could only interpret the motions of its crevice of a mouth and the deep rumbling that it produced as anything but laughter. Then it spoke back. Itss voice sounding like crackling electricity and burning wood. As it spoke Lightning arced from its remaining canopy of leaves to the still smoking branches and severed left arm. It took another step towards Ina and to Mike¡¯s astonishment, the branches that the lightning was arcing to began to regrow. Mike had known that Magic was a powerful force in this world, he had seen Ina do things already that boggled his mind, but it had still been just use of energy in his mind, an incredibly useful one, but still just energy. It was only now as he watched these two Magical titans fight, both so different and yet both powerful, that it sank in, this world had Magic. True Magic. Not what he had read about in stories or used in video games. Not just a mystical force that he had spent hours of his life dreaming of, here it was real and he could do it. Do things that were not only considered impossible back on Earth but here as well, as the only Human capable of using Magic. As his mind was processing, the fight continued. The regenerating Treant made its way towards Ina one step at a time. Though it was apparently confident, or just mad, as Ina had initially stated, it seemed depleted. The Lighting and neon light that had filled its canopy previously had dimmed significantly.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. When it was what looked like almost thirty metres from Ina, the shaft of sunlight between them, it suddenly leapt. Its legs bent, a knee and heel joint that had previously seemed much less flexible. They launched it off the ground at an insane speed for something of its size hurling it towards Ina. Mike¡¯s hands clutched at the railing, just as the possibilities of what Magic could do were dawning on him, he had realised that if Ina couldn¡¯t beat the thing, then it would ¡®Wreak havoc¡¯ as she had said. He knew with little doubt that he could do nothing to this creature. The whole corp of hunters could probably only just annoy it. If she lost it would butcher anyone it could get its hands-on, or until it was satisfied. As the Treant entered the beam of sunlight though, things shifted on a dime again. A wave of Magic burst from Ina into the ground and two roots, as thick as the Treant¡¯s legs, burst from the ground beneath it. They reached towards it like striking snakes, coiling around its legs. In less than two metres, the Treant¡¯s momentum was completely arrested and it fell against the ground with a crash, the sound of cracking and splintering wood echoing out from it. The whole area shook. Mike needed his anxious grip on the railing just to stay standing as the tree shook with the intense vibrations that the huge tree creature sent through the ground with its crash. When Mike was finally stable he looked back to the conflict. Mike watched as the sunbeam widened and shifted, his eyes flicked up and he saw the branches above moving, shifting to make what was essentially a giant spotlight. Mike¡¯s eyes were drawn back down as Ina began to speak once more, this time in Gildaic. ¡°Let the sun burn hot as it always has and always will, let it burn you from the inside out as it does to life in drought,¡± she said her words filled with focused power as she reached one hand into the beam of sunlight. Light Magic burst from her hand and engulfed the entire ray of sunlight from the canopy to the ground. Mike couldn¡¯t take his eyes away as he saw the mana that had been present in the aether, was stirred by Ina¡¯s spell; the ambient white of the Light mana and the yellow that he hadn¡¯t understood. As it blended into Ina¡¯s spell he believed it must be something between Fire mana and Light mana, Radiant perhaps? Mike watched the spell take effect on the Treant almost immediately. Steam rose from its bark skin, and it withered at a visible rate, as if it had been withstanding the desolation of drought for years, not seconds. Then something even odder happened. Mike watched as black mana began to aggregate towards the Treant in the Aether. Dark mana? Was the Treant was being steam-cooked in the direct light of the sun? No, Mike felt out as a wave of this new mana emanated out from the growing cloud and felt nothing. This wasn¡¯t Dark mana What was this new mana? Mike had no idea, it was black, but not in the same way as Dark mana, it seemed more cloudy and less¡­ present. In frustration, Mike willed the AI to swap Dark Magic out for Arcane Magic. Maybe the peculiar non-element could shed some light on this situation. When his second of frozenness was over Mike almost gaped. The feeling of the Arcane mana around him was the thickest he had ever felt from just his attunement sense. There was more than a thousand mana just in the three-metre space around him, and it was getting thicker. Mike looked back to the fight with Mana Sight on and watched the scene as if through new eyes. The world seemed over-saturated as it had the last time he had equipped Arcane Magic, but that had been at night, during the day it was a very different experience. He remembered his reason for switching and looked down at the fight. The black mana that was surrounding the Treant in the Aether was getting denser and denser as the Mad Spirit withered further. As Mike watched, the Treant began to glow with brown wood mana of its own, in an attempt to resist Mike thought, but then it began to shrink, freeing its legs from the roots and making less surface area for the light to hit it shrank at a steady pace until it was almost the size of a person, reaching its arm out towards Ina at the edge of the light, her own hand extended. Ina closed that hand into a fist and closed her eyes with it. She said only one more word, and Mike was certain that it was the element of this new mana type, ¡°Death.¡± With that one word the mana that had been gathering in the Aether integrated into her spell, and the withering Treant, now only about seven feet tall where it lay on the ground let out one last creaking groan, all its lightning gone, and died. It slumped to the ground and Mike would have sworn that it was fossilized. And with that one word, the Arcane mana in Mike''s surroundings increased in density by almost double. The colours of the brown ground, covered in leaves, the golden leaves that had fallen from the treant with its crash withering to brown dust in the light. He devoted his mind to doing the calculations while he watched the Ina with the hunters, who had remained silent and calm throughout it all. Mike had so many questions that he couldn¡¯t get them straight in his head, he just looked to Crosse and found the man looking back at him with a small smile. Mike then closed his mouth, he was pretty sure it had been open for the whole fight. ¡°Wha-what?¡± was all he could manage to make of his confused mind, as he finally managed to get the reading of the mana in his surroundings. Eighteen hundred Arcane mana, just in the air around him. ¡°Now you see why I insist on calling her Lady even though she makes a fuss about it every time. She doesn¡¯t seem to think she deserves the title, but she is the Lady of this Village more than any Human noble ever could be,¡± Crosse explained. Mike just nodded. Chapter 35 - Questions About Mana Mike looked down at Ina from his place on the highest level of the tree. She seemed so small from up here. The incongruity of it was still challenging for him to process. Mike didn¡¯t know how powerful Ina really was. It seemed she had defeated the Treant without even breaking a sweat. He wondered how much of her immense mana pool she had consumed in that fight. He had no idea how to even calculate that, considering it seemed like she uses mana from the Aether to some extent as well. She had somehow used her Light mana to influence other forms of mana in the Aether, making them mix and giving her more capabilities. He also noticed that the mana she had used for her spells hadn¡¯t given off light in the same way Light mana did when he channelled it into the Mortal realm for casting, how? Mike was startled when Ina turned from her apparent consideration of the dried-out husk of the Treant and looked up, directly at him. He froze, afraid that Light would once again control her, or that she would decide to take him for the god now. She did nothing though. Mike realised that she wasn¡¯t looking at him at all when Crosse spoke up. ¡°Seems like she want us down there,¡± he said and Mike turned to look at him to see that he was talking to the female hunter. She sighed in response. ¡°She¡¯ll probably just be telling us to clean up that thing, that or something ominous,¡± She said in response, slouching slightly. Crosse just rolled his eyes. ¡°We should go to her either way, whatever it is it is likely important,¡± he said and turned his light brown gaze to Mike. ¡°Do you want to come with us? Perhaps Lady Ina would help you with some things if you asked,¡± Crosse said, raising an eyebrow, he still thought that Mike should tell Ina of his abilities because maybe she could teach him. Mike wasn¡¯t so sure about telling her at all and about whether she could teach him. From what he had seen of Ina and how she used Magic so far he was becoming increasingly certain that ¡®Sun-Gazer¡¯ was what High Elves called an Elementalist. While she could likely still teach him the very basics that he currently lacked, he didn¡¯t think she could teach him further than that. Her insistence that he leave within a month was also a problem. Mike understood that he wasn¡¯t more important to her than this village or her freedom, and he didn¡¯t really begrudge her for it, but teaching him would certainly take longer than a month and would likely not be feasible at all, with Light looking over her shoulder and the others that he had no doubt sent to retrieve him. So Mike shook his head, ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you in your quarters, I learned some things just now that I want to look into,¡± he had gotten a notification, he was curious as to what it was. He momentarily focused his Attunement sense on himself. He hadn¡¯t levelled up, he sensed no stat points in his chest or brain, though he still didn¡¯t know where the Magic EXP was stored, so maybe his Magic aspect had levelled. Crosse just nodded in response and turned to go, waving the female hunter whose name Mike still didn¡¯t know along with him. Mike watched them go, thinking, the other hunters were talking amongst themselves and some were looking down at the monster that very well may have destroyed their home if not for Ina¡¯s protection. Mike made his way towards the stairs after Crosse and the woman. Crosse glanced back to see him and Mike just shrugged. He refused to acknowledge the awkwardness of going to two different places in the same direction. So he followed the two down three flights of stairs, reaching the bridge that they had crossed to reach this tree. Mike nodded to Crosse as he made his way back towards that bridge while Crosse led the woman towards the next flight of stairs down, heading towards the ground. Mike wondered if Ina could make function elevators on these trees, and just chose not too, or she just couldn¡¯t. For his part, he doubted that Ina used the stairs all that often, even if she couldn¡¯t make elevators for every tree, she could probably mould hers like putty to take her wherever she wished. As Mike made his way back to Crosse''s quarters, at a much more leisurely pace this time, he thought about the fight. Watching the fight had Likely been the most awe-inspiring thing he had ever seen in person. He was still trying to work out what exactly Ina had done. He knew that Ina only had access to Light mana, and whatever Soul Magic was granted to her by Light. So how did she cast those multi-element spells? Though Fire and Death mana were the only two that he was certain of. He thought about what the AI had said about mana up to this point, back in the cell it had called it ¡®Energy from God¡¯ which seemed like a decent translation for what the Elves considered it to be. It had said that the entire Spirit realm consisted of and was populated by mana. So did that mean that Spirits were made entirely of mana too? So was mana some other form of matter or energy entirely? Something that existed outside of the concept of physics as he understood it? It seemed to interact with physics though, when he brought Light mana into the Mortal realm, it turned into regular Light, Dark mana decayed as well, though not as fast from his limited observation. Could that be because ¡®Darkness¡¯ wasn¡¯t really a physical thing that it could transform into? ¡®Energy from God,¡¯ it had said. Why the singular capitalized ¡®God¡¯ and not the ¡®gods¡¯ as it seemed was more common when referring to the gods of this place. Ina had explained that the gods were not born gods and that Light had once been a very powerful Dragon Spirit in the Spirit realm. Did the term predate the idea of multiple gods? He just didn¡¯t know. While lost in thought he had made his way to the hunter¡¯s barracks and he began the hike around the walkways and up the stairs towards Crosse¡¯s quarters. He felt the Arcane mana around him as he walked, it still felt like simply energy. It wasn¡¯t a feeling that he could easily explain. He reached the highest walkway level and walked into Crosse¡¯s quarters, taking only a moment to remember which one of the identical doorways lead to Crosse¡¯s quarters and entering. Once inside he looked around and saw the new alcove that had been formed in the wall that held Crosse¡¯s bed. He went and grabbed the bedding that he had slept in the night prior and spread it out in the new alcove.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He then made his way to the rocking chair and sat down. First, he wanted to check what that notification had been during the fight.
You have received a Quest:
Quest Log Quest Description Quest Objective Quest Rewards
Spirit Tongues The spirits communicate in a tongue formed of mana, not sound. It is a complex and powerful Skill that may come in handy for your future endeavours. However, the AI does not know this tongue, and cannot teach you how to speak it. So you must seek out one willing to teach you this art, as well as be proficient enough in the languages of Men and Elves yourself to even begin to comprehend the nuances of this ancient tongue. Reach Journeyman rank in Language Skill. Find an elf or a Spirit proficient enough in the Spirit tongue to teach you of its use, or find a text that explains it. (This Objective does not require the completion of the first objective) The Spirit Tongues Skill
So it had been the Language that Ina and the Treant had spoken that had triggered the notification. This was the second quest he had received that gave a Skill as a reward, he wondered how much more the AI could teach him on its own. As interesting as the ability to speak to spirits would be, he wasn¡¯t in a rush to obtain it any time soon, especially as the only real Spirit he had seen so far had been the Lightning Treant, and it hadn¡¯t seemed so interested in talking. He closed the window and went back to thinking about what he had seen and felt during the fight. Ina had used her control of Light Magic to influence other forms of Elemental mana, and something about her spells had drastically increased the concentration of Arcane mana in the area. Of those things, there was only one that he could think of a way to test, but first to ask the AI a question, just in case it was willing to just tell him. ¡°What is mana?¡± he asked willing a Help window to appear to answer the question.
Mana is the Magical energy, it is present in the Mortal Realm primarily as Arcane mana, and in the Spirit realm as the assorted forms of Elemental mana. The word mana is a translation of a native word, which does not change much between tongues, and means roughly ¡°Energy from God.¡± Magic is the harnessing mana to achieve tasks, this works differently in the Mortal and Spiritual realms. All matter that enters the Spirit realm eventually becomes a form of Elemental mana, unless under the protection of a soul with a strong will or powerful understanding of itself. Mana that enters the Mortal Realm doe not entirely become energy of the Mortal realm. The AI currently knows of 11 Distinct forms of Elemental mana. Five of these are the Basic Elements. Wood, Fire, Metal, Water, and Earth. The other four are what the AI Understands as Extreme Elements. Each is linked to one of the basic elements through Context and origin in some way, though the AI does not have a full understanding of how each is linked, there is another extreme element that the AI has yet to comprehend. Life, Death, Wind, and Lightning The Elements of Light and Dark are more primal than even the Basic Elements and seem to be linked in intricate and inexplicable ways. The AI itself consists primarily of Light, Dark, and Arcane mana. Arcane mana is the mana of the Mortal Realm and contributes to the growth of mortal Creatures. It lacks something that Elemental mana has, but seems to be moldable with specific methods.
That was more detail than its last explanation, which had mostly been in the passing of another answer. It had given him good information, the breaking of Elements into the Basic and Extreme was new to him, though it had mentioned the five Basic Elements before. The Extreme Elements were interesting as well, apparently, each was linked to just one of the Basic Elements. He noted the use of the word ¡®Wind¡¯ and not ¡¯Air¡¯, perhaps that was why his mana sight wasn¡¯t constantly full of Air mana, which by all reasoning should be everywhere. Which Element linked to which was an interesting puzzle that he would need to consider, perhaps Crosse would be able to help him with that, it made sense that someone from this dimension would have a better understanding of its rules. Or at least a view that wasn¡¯t biased towards interpreting them through the rules on an entirely different dimension. So Mike set out to test the one thing that he felt he could. Where had all that Arcane mana come from, the AI seemed to have been hinting at the answer in its explanation. So Mike reached out to the Light mana that was drawn to the tree and channelled it into the Mortal realm under his Control. The mana immediately started to decay, draining away from his control, letting of bright light right in front of him where he had channelled it to. The light wasn¡¯t the only byproduct of the decaying mana though, no, Mike could feel the arcane mana also growing denser in the space around him, what was actually happening here? Mike focused his attunement and Arcane Logic in on the Light mana that was quickly trickling away under his control. The Light mana was becoming the light that was currently shining brightly before him, but part of it was also shifting into Arcane mana, Why? Mike tried to focus his attunement further but couldn¡¯t sense what was causing the decay and why the Light mana would become both physical light and Arcane mana. From what he knew of Arcane mana it made things better, somehow, enhancing specific attributes to contribute to the whole of the thing. What did it mean that Light mana and possibly all Elemental mana was also made of Arcane mana, at least partially? He was about to swap to Light Magic out for Dark Magic to see if it worked similarly when there was a rustling from the doorway and he looked up to see Crosse¡¯s head popping through the curtain of leaves. Mike instinctively attempted to shove the Light mana back into the Aether as he had heard the rustling, and it hadn''t worked, at all. Putting mana back in the Aether proved harder than taking it out. His control hit a wall was all he could describe it as. As a result, he lost control of the mana entirely and there was a bright flash of Light and Mike felt a sudden burst of pure joy that lasted only as long as the flash of Light. Crosse''s head rocked back at the sudden feeling and his eyes squinted at the bright light. ¡°What in Lights radiant asshole are you doing?¡± Crosse asked after he was fully recovered. Mike stood up smiling sheepishly, ¡°experimenting?¡± Chapter 36 - Grieving Crosse watched Mike walk across the bridge towards his quarters, while Lauren and he continued towards the steps to the ground. Such an odd boy that one, he had come clean about some huge things, but Crosse could tell that he had more hidden away. If the boy had shown him anything so far though, it was that he would speak up when he was comfortable. He had seen that first night that rushing him didn¡¯t go well. ¡°So, who is that boy to you?¡± Lauren asked a note of concern in her voice. ¡°I heard about what happened to Connor. Gonal and Tyler have been mourning alone in private, but word has gotten around." Crosse sighed, having known the question was coming. ¡°I don¡¯t rightly know, he is a bit of a mystery at the moment. As I said before, I found him in the woods on a hunt. I had separated from Connor to chase a young peryton. I was rather baffled when I started running towards its screeches to find someone had already killed it,¡± Crosse explained. Laurens brows rose. ¡°A peryton? That is rather impressive, especially alone, even you would have had some trouble with that, and you¡¯re likely the best of the seniors,¡± she replied. Crosse chuckled, ¡°He didn¡¯t do it cleanly, that ¡®hair cut¡¯ he was given to him by the thing''s claws, pretty sure it went to the bone, he¡¯d have been dead in moments if I hadn¡¯t shown up. I brought him to meet up with where I left Connor and¡­¡± Crosse paused, remembering wandering through those trees looking for his partner, not seeing any sign of him, and then seeing Mike''s eyes widen in his periphery. Only to draw his bow on something far more deadly than he had expected, then wondering for the whole fight and treating Mike whether he had left his friend to die. He may have been too hasty with the cauterization, simply because he had needed to know if Connor was still alive. Lady Ina had praised him and maybe she had been right, he had seen a hunter suffer from metal poisoning before, but that wasn¡¯t what he was thinking in the moment. He had been thinking of Connor and what oozes did to their prey, swallowing them whole and slowly digesting them over hours. His only solace had been that at least gold-sap oozes tended to kill their prey first, as their method of combat was particularly brutal for their species. But there had been no broken bones in Connor¡¯s skeleton. He closed his eyes taking a deep breath to smother that line of thinking, as Lauren and he continued down towards the ground in silence. She didn¡¯t prod him to continue. They reached the ground after two more flights of stairs, exiting to face directly towards Ina. Crosse wondered idly if she had changed the staircase to exit facing her or if it had just been a coincidence, he leaned towards the former. Lady Ina generally preferred using magic to solve something rather than have it take more time. If histories were to be believed, that was a rather common trait amongst High Elves, though some took it to a rather distasteful excess. When they reached within about ten metres of her she raised a palm in their direction, signalling they stop. They did and she greeted them, ¡°Crosse, Lauren.¡± She then turned to face them. ¡°Please make sure that everyone in the village knows not to get any closer to this thing than you are now. Do not post guards anywhere nearer than the base of the trees and don¡¯t stay with this proximity for longer than is absolutely necessary. ¡°The area ten metres around it is saturated with Death Magic. I can use Light to either stop it from spreading or stop it from coalescing and potentially forming a Death Spirit, as the consequences for the latter are much graver.¡± Crosse saw a smirk touch her face as and it took everything he had not to groan. Lauren apparently didn¡¯t have as much willpower, or specific resistance to terrible puns from her, as he heard a distinctly strangled chuckle come from her. Lady Ina continued as if nothing had happened. ¡°I have decided to do the prior. So living things cannot enter its proximity for long, or risk spreading it. This will last a month, I will come out here once a week to make sure no Spirit is forming,¡± she explained. Crosse and Lauren both bowed and spoke, ¡°Yes lady Ina,¡± they said in unison. ¡°You are dismissed, one of you go tell the elders and one of you tell the village head, I don¡¯t care which does which. I need to continue here for a few more minutes, and need to concentrate,¡± She finished and closed her eyes. Crosse and Lauren glanced at each other and bowed again before backing away and leaving quickly. ¡°I¡¯ll tell the elders, I have a meeting with them already planned for,¡± he glanced up at the sky through the canopy, able to see glimpses of the sun through branches and leaves swaying in the wind, ¡°well, now. I will go get Mike.¡± Lauren nodded, and Crosse walked towards the lower steps of the hunters'' barracks.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. *** Mike looked sheepishly back at Crosse. When the light had flashed in his face he had felt an intense burst of curiosity, and it was still tickling at the back of his mind. ¡°Experimenting with what?¡± he asked, he at least wanted to know what the purpose of the errant magic that could have killed them both was. ¡°Light Magic and Mystery Magic,¡± the boy replied, not seeming too sure of the answer himself. Crosse stepped into the room, not putting down his bow, they wouldn¡¯t be here long, he just wanted to know this one thing. ¡°Light Magic and What Magic?¡± he asked, mystery Magic? What in the realms was that? Mike made his own curious face, ¡°have you not heard the word mystery before? or is my Language Skill screwing up?¡± Mike asked, answering a question with a question. ¡°You said Mystery Magic, is that what you meant to say?¡± Crosse replied in kind. Mike appeared to think for a moment, ¡°Mystery is close I guess, perhaps it didn¡¯t work because there isn¡¯t a word for it in Gildaic, what I mean is an esoteric mystery or intentionally hidden mystery, the word is Arcane, I hope that came through this time. In my wo-language, it is used to describe Magical mysteries, things out of reach,¡± Mike said in explanation. ¡°Arcane,¡± Crosse said, trying out the word. He noticed the hitch in Mike¡¯s explanation, what had he intended to say? Given the way Mike apparently communicated, there was no guarantee that what came out of his mouth had any relation to a language that Crosse spoke, so he couldn¡¯t guess. ¡°It sounds like you are just explaining Magic. it is already mysterious and out of reach,¡± Crosse said, crossing his arms. At least for him, it was. He had come to terms with that as a child, as most did. Why was he even asking this? Mike nodded, ¡°that is kind of the point, the word is used to describe mysteries that are magical in nature, or at least in that vein,¡± he said seeming pleased. ¡°So what does this Magical-mystery Magic do?¡± he asked, still unable to suppress his curiosity. Mike furrowed his brow. ¡°That¡¯s what I was trying to work out. From what I know, it does a lot, but I have no idea how to use what I know it does to benefit me, it doesn¡¯t give me hints in the same way other types of mana do,¡± he said, sounding frustrated. Crosse finally shook his head, this wasn¡¯t useful. They had a place to be. ¡°I have to go talk to the hunter elders, would you like to come? Your testimony could be useful, even if you are a stranger,¡± he asked, not wanting to force Mike. He hadn¡¯t responded well to that at first. Mike stood from the chair nodding. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to miss it, though you will be mostly talking in Manish right?¡± Mike asked. Crosse nodded, ¡°Not all of the elders speak Gildaic, though some have picked some up since they stopped going on active missions. Bring Connor¡¯s bow, it will likely come up, and I don¡¯t want it to seem like I¡¯m hiding it,¡± Crosse said. Mike nodded again and grabbed the bow from where he had leaned it against the wall. Mike took orders well at least, questions less so, but orders he didn¡¯t seem to mind. Crosse watched as he picked up the inert longbow and he flashed back to another time. When Connor had taken up the bow while it was like that, more than five years ago. It had been that way ever since Crosse''s mother died, retrieved by Ina and given to Crosse too redistribute, whether to an apprentice when he became a senior hunter, as it had been or to a descendant when they came of age. ¡°So where are we going?¡± Mike asked, breaking Crosse from his reverie. ¡°The bottom level of the hunter¡¯s barrack is called the lodge, it is an open place where the hunters unwind. Information about past hunts and known beasts are collected there. It is where the Elders run the hunters from,¡± Crosse explained as he made his way out the door. He heard Mike exit through the curtain behind him. ¡°So what did Lady Ina have to say?¡± he asked as he caught up. Crosse repeated to Mike what Ina had told him earlier, about Death Magic and her inability to stop its spread; due to the possibility that it might become a Spirit. Mike didn¡¯t respond and he glanced back to see that Mike was looking out towards the clearing where Ina was likely still dealing with the problem. He glanced that way and could see that Ina was just standing where she had been before, eyes closed and concentrating. ¡°That is a lot of Magic she is using over there, but it isn¡¯t making waves like last time, why?¡± Mike said quietly, was he talking to himself? Then he spoke up, ¡°what are Spirits, anyway?¡± Crosse blinked as they reached the stairs. ¡°You are the one with one inked into your arm, you probably know better than I do,¡± Crosse replied. Mike replied as he followed Crosse down the stairs. ¡°My Spirit is kinda unique, it knows more about the world than I do, but it is also cryptic and inconvenient to communicate with,¡± Mike replied. ¡°That sounds about right for what I have heard about spirits that can actually communicate, not that I have met one. All of the Spirits I have seen were like that tree fuck earlier. Big, scary, and eager to kill everything in their reach,¡± he said, Spirits were worse than Beasts, but far less common, so he tended to dwell on them less. ¡°Okay, but what are they, what is the difference between a spirit and a beast?¡± he asked. Crosse shrugged in reply, ¡°Spirits tend to follow less logic or different logic. I asked Lady Ina about why she called them Mad Spirits once, and she said that they are ¡®A Spirit that grieves their life from the moment of their birth, thus driving them mad,¡¯ she hasn¡¯t said anything else about them,¡± he said. He had asked her that after the first time he had heard her challenge one. Mike didn¡¯t respond for a while after that, probably thinking. ¡°Interesting,¡± was all he said. Chapter 37 - Elders Crosse lead the way down the stairs surrounding the tree. He noticed Mike looking out towards where Lady Ina was still working in the clearing whenever they were on the right side of the tree for it to be in view. At the third level down he couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°So what do you see her doing out there,¡± he asked as Ina was once again obscured by the trunk of the tree. Mike¡¯s voice came back thoughtful. ¡°I honestly have no idea, she is working with a lot of Magic, not as much as I think she used in the fight, but more actually coming from her. She seems to be finally coming close to actually running out, it has been dimming a bit. She was practically a beacon when we came out earlier,¡± Mike explained. The boy''s ability to see mana was incredible. Crosse was certain that it was how he had seen the attacks of the gold-sap ooze coming, allowing him to dodge it as he had. Then to predict its final attack. Crosse didn¡¯t ask again as they made their way down to the lodge. He noticed that Mike wasn¡¯t the only young man who was looking out at Ina from the trees. He smirked to himself, Lady Ina had been known to take a hunter in for a night on occasion. He had not done so himself, though she had offered before. Many men saw her as beautiful and powerful. A good combination to be sure, but he had seen something in speaking to her that few of the young hunters appreciated fully. Lady Ina was old. Old in a way that most Humans didn¡¯t get the chance to appreciate. In contradiction to what he had told Mike, he actually had asked her how old she was when she had made that offer. She had told him only on the condition that he did not tell anyone else, and that he discourages anyone who asked him from asking her as she didn''t like thinking about it. Eight-hundred and sixty-one she had said. That had been ten years ago. So Crosse smirked at the boys who watched her in the field because boys is all they would ever be to her. As he reached the next level he knew that the level below was the hunters¡¯ lodge, and he knew what was waiting for him there. The wry feeling of humour that had bubbled to the surface again was dragged under the understanding of reality once more. ¡°We are almost there, do not interfere with anything that goes on unless you are directly addressed. I have seen you fight, and while you have your talents, you are not a match for anyone in the lodge, especially the elders. Never assume an old warrior to be weak,¡± Crosse said giving the boy a piece of wisdom that his father had taught him as a child. Mike nodded looking contemplative as if what Crosse had said made perfect sense. Crosse just turned and made his way down the last flight of stairs to the hunters'' lodge. He had come up past the lodge on his way to retrieve Mike, and it was much the same now as it had been then. The walkway that surrounded the lodge was larger wider and had a taller railing, though the railing was more decorative than the solid wood chest-high walls of the other levels, broken into posts that each resembled an individual tree trunk with only two branches stretching out to connect to the branches of the trunks to its sides to make an ornate railing that circled the whole platform. The inside wall of the level was also different from those above, as it was not peppered with openings to alcoves for living quarters as they were. Instead, it was carved with intricate an intricate mural. Crosse glanced over his shoulder to see Mike, whose gave had been drawn to the mural carved wall his eyebrows raised in impressed evaluation. Crosse continued his walk around the wider walkway, which on this level had seats and tables grown directly out of it in places. ¡°What happens when it rains?¡± Mike asked, coming up beside Crosse. Crosse looked at him, with an eyebrow raised, an interesting first question. ¡°Lady Ina tends to know when rain is coming before the rest of us do, and if it is she usually makes a roof for this level by extending out the walkway of the level above, which she does to a smaller extent on all of the trees right at the top whenever she feels it is going to rain with any actual force. If it is just a drizzle, then we get wet and suck it up,¡± Crosse explained, causing Mike to chuckle. They rounded the trunk and Mike who was standing on the inside kept his eyes on the wall, inspecting the mural, Crosse didn¡¯t look as he had seen it enough to have most of it memorized. A history of the hunters of Inasholme, added to by each new hunter as they became a full hunter, again when they became a senior hunter, and lastly when they became an elder hunter. Each advance in rank giving the hunter a larger area to work with, the first only letting them carve a piece just larger than their palm.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The murals didn¡¯t circle the entire wall, only making it about three-quarters of the way around the wall, Crosse had wondered what they would do if they ran out of room when he was an apprentice, but his father who had been his master had assured him that they wouldn¡¯t. Now he knew that it had happened before, about fifty years ago. The hunters had gone to Ina to ask for some assistance and she had offhandedly condensed the whole mural into the front half of the wall without damaging any of its artwork in the slightest. Which served to both make the mural look even more impressive to the later generations and give them more room to work with. They eventually came around to the entrance of the lodge proper. An archway of carved wood that didn¡¯t contain the same gild-leaf curtain that the entryways to the quarters did. It looked in on a wide-open space filled with tables at the far side of which was a long semi-circular bar that took a bite out of the floor space. Crosse walked through the familiar setting to the longest table in the room, set into the middle and surrounded by twelve more impressive chairs than the rest. For the moment, this was the only table that was occupied. Crosse wanted to look back to see Mike¡¯s reaction to the room, but his attention was too focused on the occupants of the long table. There were eight people seated at the table, all focused towards the far end from the door. The nearest to him was Gonal, who still had the red eyes of someone who hadn¡¯t slept well, though was otherwise well put together. The six occupied seats to the sides of the table were filled with elders. It was theorized by hunters new and senior that there was a hierarchy among the elders, but if there was it was not known to him. The only obvious hierarchy was which one of them was in charge. At the head of the table, facing the entrance sat Cecilia. Crosse knew her well, she had been one of his mother''s best friends. She was old, but as Crosse had told Mike, that was no indicator for her physical or mental ability. She had iron-grey hair, and though she had wrinkles surrounding her golden-brown eyes, they didn¡¯t detract at all from her stern expression. She was whipcord thin, as she had always been. Crosse had been trained by her more recently than any other hunters had, and he knew first hand that she was stronger than he was. That wasn¡¯t the reason she sat at the head of the table though. She was also the oldest, wisest, and smartest of their number. ¡°Sit, both of you,¡± she said, her eyes flicking to include Mike in the statement. Her voice wasn¡¯t hard, it was sad. Crosse obeyed, taking the seat at the opposite end of the table to Cecilia, and Mike sat in the chair to his right, seemingly having understood the simple phrase. ¡°You know why you have been called here Crosse?¡± she asked, looking him in the eyes. Crosse nodded, ¡°to report on the events surrounding the death of hunter Connor, and to be judged if I was responsible for his death,¡± Crosse said stiffly. Cecilia¡¯s eyes closed and she inhaled a deep breath through her nose, resting her elbows on the table and making and lacing her long fingers together. ¡°Yes and no, in that order. We do wish to hear what happened to Connor in more detail, but we do not blame you for his death, Crosse,¡± she said. Crosse was taken aback, he had been sure they would agree that his reckless choice had resulted in Connor''s death. He sat there with a shocked expression for a moment until one of the other elders spoke up. "You didn''t kill the boy, dolt, from what Gonal has told us you made a call and he agreed with it, you both made a choice, sadly you didn''t have all of the information," Game, a large man who had not shrunk with age said from his bearded face in a characteristic scowl, though it seems more bitter at the world than with Crosse specifically. "Indeed," Cecilia said from the head of the table, "You are in no way to blame for the presence of a beast far more powerful than you were anticipating, now, please tell us what happened on that hunt in greater detail. All of the information we have has come from hunter Gonal, and he got it second hand from you. It would also be polite of you to introduce us to your new friend, his presence as your shadow has not gone unnoticed today," she continued raising her eyebrow towards Mike. Crosse nodded, still processing the words Game had said. "This is Mike, I encountered him after I split from Connor, he had been attacked by the peryton that I told Gonal of, he had managed to survive but had little means to bring the creature down. I assured him with an arrow that brought the Beast to the ground and he killed it with a knife," Crosse explained calmly, using a story that he had decided to conceal Mike''s abilities, which he agreed with Mike should be kept under wraps, for now. Cecilia¡¯s evaluating look at Mike changed to one that was slightly impressed, ¡°Not an easy feat, boy, do you intend to join the hunters of Inasholme then?¡± She asked Mike directly. Crosse looked to Mike, who seemed to have understood the question at least partially, but was hesitant to reply. ¡°Mike is in a bit of an odd circumstance. His memories have been altered by a rather high ranking High Elf, according to Lady Ina. The most inconvenient side effect of which is that he doesn¡¯t speak Manish very well,¡± he said to Cecilia and then switched to Gildaic to talk to Mike. ¡°This is Cecilia, she is the eldest hunter,¡± he said nodding in her direction respectfully, ¡°You can speak to her in GIldaic, she will understand, she speaks it about as well as you speak Manish,¡± he said. Mike smiled rather nervously before he looked to Cecilia, ¡°Thank you? I couldn¡¯t have done it alone, though. unfortunately due to my history with the High Elves Lady Ina has asked that I not remain in the village for longer than a month. So I am afraid that I may not be able to join your hunters,¡± Mike replied in Gildaic, sounding rather sincerely disappointed about his inability to stay. Cecilia raised an eyebrow and looked to Crosse, ¡°Is that so? Then why does he carry Connor¡¯s bow? I had assumed that you intended to apprentice him, Crosse? Well more on that later then, Crosse, could you tell us what happened from the beginning?¡± Cecilia asked, leaning back into her chair and taking her elbows from the table. Crosse nodded and began. Chapter 38 - Distracted Mike watched and listened. As he had done for the meeting thus far. Crosse seemed to have started giving a full report on what had happened during his hunt with Connor two days prior, the day that Mike had escaped the facility. Mike moved his mind from the unproductive thought, he had seen a lot in those days, but not enough for him to be reminiscing about just yet. He didn¡¯t understand some of what Crosse was saying as he talked about the preparations he and Connor had made before leaving on their hunt. Mike was curious if he was nearly at the point where he was acclimated enough to Manish to understand it for the most part. He felt like he only needed one more level in Language to get there, and maybe one more for actually being able to speak it. He listened to Crosse telling his report for a few minutes but quickly grew distracted. It would have been dry listening even if he could understand it perfectly. So he thought back to the ¡®experiment¡¯ he had been doing before Crosse had interrupted him. Arcane mana was somehow linked to Elemental mana. He thought about the things that he knew right now. When he channelled Light mana into the Mortal realm it began to decay. When it decayed it let off two things; Light, as in physical illumination and light energy rays, and Arcane mana. Before Crosse had interrupted him he had been going to swap his Light Magic Skill out for Dark Magic so he could sense if Dark mana decayed similarly. He wondered if he could still do that now. His sudden stillness would likely not go unnoticed in this gathering of people, but without context, it didn¡¯t mean much. So he did, leaning back in his chair he sent a command to the AI to swap Light Magic to Dark Magic. The second of stillness hit him, though he had not been moving, so it was hopefully not too noticeable. When he had control of his body again he remained still, leaned up against the back of his chair. He could sense the pouch of gems now, their Dark mana stores having been barely touched by his use of them. He felt the pouch, trying to sense what it was doing. After he had felt the Light mana turning into Arcane mana, he had a suspicion. What if it could be done the other way? So he focused in on the pouch, using arcane logic to try and sense any differences in the Arcane mana outside and the Dark mana inside. After trying for a few minutes he concluded that his Arcane Logic was not sensitive enough to pick anything up. Unless the pouch was absorbing more than 100 arcane mana in a short period then he wouldn¡¯t be able to sense anything. His still suspected though. He suspected that the pouch was turning Arcane mana into Dark mana. The mana in the gems existed in the Mortal realm, not the Aether, so if he was right about the Dark mana decaying in a similar way to Light mana then the pouch must be containing that somehow, or else the gems would all run out of mana over time. He made a small frown. All of this was pure theory, he needed to test something. If he was right then the pouch was at least stopping the Dark mana in the gems from decaying. All he needed to do to check that was take out one of the gems. He listened to Crosse''s report of his hunt again for long enough to understand that he was now reporting how Connor and he had come across the peryton''s tracks and other signs that Mike didn¡¯t understand. He hoped this wouldn¡¯t seem too suspicious. He reached into his inner jacket pocket with his right hand and pulled open the small pouch with his fingers and reached into it to pinch one of the tiny gems out, he pulled the pouch shut before removing his hand, not wanting the gems to spill out into his pocket. The only one at the table who gave him any attention as he did this was Gonal, but the grieving man seemed not to care and went back to listening to Crosse tell of his son. Mike felt a pang of guilt. He was ignoring this report because it didn¡¯t interest him and because he knew enough of the broad strokes to get the picture, but to Gonal this had to be one of the most trying times of his life, as he sat and listened to the retelling of his son¡¯s last days alive.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He drew back from that feeling, smothering it with his interest in the gem in his hand. He sensed at the gem, it was smaller than the one he had measured last time, only around 200 mana in it, so it either had a lower capacity or wasn¡¯t as full as the other one. He focused on it, reading it as closely as he could with Arcane logic, at the same time trying to measure the Arcane mana in its surroundings. As he focused on them he sensed the Dark mana fall below the 200 mark, but the Arcane mana doesn¡¯t tick up past 100 mana density in the area just around his closed hand. Then it did. He smiled, so he was right, Dark mana and Light mana both decayed into Arcane mana. Two points made a line. Did all Elemental mana decay like this, letting off some natural phenomenon and Arcane mana when brought into the Mortal realm? What did that say about Elemental mana as a whole? Was it all Arcane mana with flavouring added in? If that was true, then what was Arcane mana? He had seen Arcane mana function in ways without his control. When he levelled up he had drawn in Arcane mana and it had formed into something else. It had seemed like a spell, but what had cast it? What had the AI said in its explanation of the plunder system? It had said that Arcane mana had no elemental alignment, so when his aspects were strained, they gave the mana that his soul had passively absorbed a new alignment, one that strengthened the aspect that was being strained. So what was this ¡®alignment¡¯? Was it just telling the mana to be something else, could he turn Arcane mana into Light mana just by imagining it? He highly doubted that and this wasn¡¯t a place to try. He felt out at the Arcane mana around him once more, and was able to sense it in Crosse, Gonal and the two elders nearest him, he had been mostly tuning that mana out when near others while he had Arcane magic equipped, as it had not been immediately relevant, but now he looked at it closer. Crosse had more Arcane mana in him than Gonal by quite a margin, it was hard to get complete numbers at these quantities but as he knuckled down to do the math with the aid of the Skill he worked them out. Gonal had around 1900 Arcane mana inside him, while Crosse¡¯s hadn¡¯t changed from his last measurement, though he felt he got a more accurate reading this time at about 2800. maybe it had increased a little. The two elders were more interesting, they both had more than 3000 Arcane mana inside them. The numbers he was getting were interestingly consistent. And as he thought he felt some Arcane mana flow from the surrounding mana and enter him, integrating with that pool of mana in his head that he thought of as his Mental EXP. When he had sensed Crosse¡¯s internal Arcane mana before he¡¯d had no sense of scale with which to measure it by, but now he had others and that coincidental gain of EXP. Mike sensed at his Mental and Physical EXP pools, he would have looked for his magic one as well, but he had no idea where it was. Both pools had less than a hundred mana in them, so he couldn¡¯t get a clear reading as to how much mana they did have, but he didn¡¯t need that, he had another way to know how full they were. He moved his right hand into his lap, once again paying attention to Crosse¡¯s recounting. Crosse was now telling of their travel to rejoin Connor where he had gone to fight the tree-sap ooze, Mike was only able to tell that because he understood the words for travel, ooze, Connor, and his name. So Mike looked down at his lap and commanded the AI to show his current Mental EXP on the back of his hand. It did, the dark lines of the tattoo fading into existence. 65% So if that was the percent of his Mental EXP that was full... he willed it to show him his Physical EXP value. 90% He had been getting a lot of exercise getting around this place, but not quite enough to get him to level five. He wondered if his current physical condition had any detriment on his Physical EXP gain. With those numbers in mind, he sunk his focus into the Arcane Logic Skill, working with it to figure out exactly how much mana was in his pools. It didn¡¯t take him long to confirm what he had already suspected, the 100% in a pool was simply 100 arcane mana. So as he opened his eyes he was able to tell something that he had been curious about since he had learned it was a thing. The levels of the other humans. Now, the Humans in his attunement range didn¡¯t feel like clumps of arcane mana packed into a person, no, they felt like something more holistic that told him something about them, and himself. He could tell now that Crosse had what the AI would call an average Level of 9 and a total Level of 28, while the elder nearest him was level 10 and the one just within his range was Level 11. Well, this would be useful. Discovering Magic -Update- Sorry for vanishing! Hi Readers! I am sorry for vanishing, despite saying that my break would be only until the 1st of January. The truth is that I have been going over the series and the criticisms I have received and found that most of them are accurate and need addressing. I want to start approaching the way that I write and release the story differently. Starting with a total rewrite of what I have, whether that rewrite happens in a brand new release or on this page is yet to be decided. The main reason for this change is related to something I said in my last update, I find myself to be a discovery writer at heart, I like to let the story flow naturally and go in directions based on moments of inspiration and character motivated decisions. This doesn''t always make for a clean and logical story, and my lack of foundation when starting this story has halted my continued progress. A relevant criticism I have received is that the early chapters lack in character development and story progress, focusing entirely on the system and world-building. This is the case mostly because I started writing this with only the system and world really ready and with little experience in writing characters at all.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. So I will go back and do those again, now with a much firmer idea as to how I want to do this. In the future, I think I will be releasing chapters in chunks when I consider them to be ready, instead of racing against a deadline three times a week. I hope you understand where this is coming from, I love both Fantasy and LitRPG as genres and want my first real contribution to them to be as good as it can. Thank you for reading! P.S This is not technically a Hiatus, though getting things in order to my own satisfaction will likely take a while! please bear with me!