Hiding in the small classroom of his goblin-infested university, a heavy desk in front of the door, Xavier read the spell description for Spiritual Guidance.
Spiritual Guidance – Rank 1
Spiritual Guidance is a basic Mage spell that is rarely learnt by human Mages and is only available to those with a naturally strong Spirit. Spiritual Guidance has several different paths, and is an incredibly difficult spell to master. It can enhance one’s body, mind and magic, and subtly guide one’s actions while in combat. As a Mage advances, they may choose to specialise in one area, generalise in all, or abandon the path altogether.
Unlike other spells, generalising in Spiritual Guidance does not hinder the power of each of this spell’s abilities as achieving Rank 2 and upgrading the spell to Spiritual Trifecta is only achievable by rare individuals.
One cannot walk backward on the path.
Xavier’s eyes widened. The spell was rarely learnt? Required a naturally strong Spirit?
The System deemed my Spirit skills high. Is that why my Cast Element spell was able to take out the goblins in one hit despite only being level 1? Because I had a high Spirit attribute?
He narrowed his eyes and brought up the Upgrade Quest right away, wanting to learn more.
Spiritual Guidance – Rank 1
Upgrade Quest:
As you have now used this spell, you have begun your first step on the path to upgrading it to Rank 2.
Available paths:
1. Spiritual Strength – Enhance one’s physical and mental strength while in combat – to upgrade, fight an enemy while this path is active. Progress: 1/10
2. Spiritual Defence – Enhance one’s physical and mental defence while in combat – to upgrade, fight an enemy while this path is active. Progress: 0/10
3. Spiritual Magic - Enhance one’s magical power while in combat – to upgrade, fight an enemy while this path is active. Progress: 0/10
4. Spiritual Trifecta – Enhance one’s physical and mental strength and defence, as well as one’s magical power, while in combat - to upgrade, fight an enemy while this path is active. Progress: 0/5
Choosing one path may eliminate some or all other paths. This will both limit your ability and strengthen it.
Upgrading a spell from Rank 1 to Rank 2 will make you immediately forget another Rank 1 spell of your choosing. Once a spell is forgotten, it is almost impossible to be learnt again.
One cannot walk backward on the path.
Xavier’s interest piqued even further. He stared at the fourth path, Spiritual Trifecta, and reread part of the spell’s information:
Unlike other spells, generalising in Spiritual Guidance does not hinder the power of each of this spell’s abilities.
He grinned. That’s the path I’m going to take. It seemed like the obvious choice. It made him wonder why there were multiple paths to begin with. Wouldn’t everyone choose Spiritual Trifecta? It even had fewer requirements to upgrade, only using the spell to fight against 5 enemies instead of 10!
It didn’t even specify killing the enemies.
Then again, it did say it was only achievable by rare individuals. I’ll have to become one of those rare individuals, then.
He realised he’d been a fool, earlier, when he’d left the lecture theatre, for not having looked at his spells first. There’d been far more for him to do before facing his next enemy.
I hope there are enough enemies for me to face to upgrade these spells.
He bit his lip. He needed to make a difficult decision. He was definitely going to pursue upgrading Spiritual Guidance to Rank 2. As he could only choose two out of his four spells, and he’d already put aside Summon, he needed to decide between Cast Element and Telekinesis.
Why does this feel like such a difficult choice? He sighed. I can’t spend all my time on this decision. There are goblins to kill. He chuckled to himself. Goblins to kill. Yeah, that’s a completely normal thought to have.
Xavier stood. As though standing alone would help him feel more assertive.
Cast Element helped me kill my enemies faster. Throwing fire was the quintessential Mage spell. But moving things with his mind? The way he had flung those goblins against the wall?
He thought about which spell would help him better in the long run, and which he would prefer to use. Though he didn’t have knowledge of the System and how it would let him develop those spells, he’d read plenty of books…
Fire is too volatile. What if I can’t control it? What if I set fire to an enemy army and the fire can’t be contained? As powerful as fire was, it was chaotic, too. It might have helped him kill his enemies faster, but there was something about Telekinesis that he liked even more.
Perhaps it wasn’t the most logical choice, but he’d always wanted to fling things with his mind. It was an insane dream he’d had since he was a kid.
Now that he could actually make it happen? How could he refuse?
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Seeing as he had to choose, he decided to go with Telekinesis—Heavy Telekinesis, to be precise.
He imagined using it to move a mountain, or fling an entire army to the ground, and couldn’t help but grin. It gave him a better image than simply setting everything on fire. Besides, he couldn’t say he liked the smell of burning flesh.
For a moment, he considered using Telekinesis in here. He could move the desk out of the way of the door with his mind, but he only had so much Spirit Energy. 800 points, to be exact. Even if he could gain the next rank, he’d be without Spirit Energy for his next fight.
I need to figure out a way to gain more Spirit Energy without killing enemies.
It was the same thing that stopped him from using Spiritual Guidance, even though he needed to practice with the spell.
He looked at his legs. His tattered robes. He’d taken a lot of damage when those goblins had attacked him, and he still didn’t know how to regain health without levelling up.
He checked in on his health.
Your health is at 91%.
He blinked. Grinned. It had gone up! Though it hadn’t gone up much, not a whole lot of time had passed since last he checked. Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Maybe sleeping makes it regenerate even faster. Or, like, meditation?
Xavier shook his head. There was so much to figure out, but he couldn’t spend all his time trapped in this room. He’d spent too much time here already.
If he was careful enough, he wouldn’t have to worry about losing health.
Just to be safe, he put one of his free stat points into Toughness.
You have added 1 point to Toughness!
Toughness increased from 5 → 6!
You have 3 free stat points remaining.
Hopefully that will help.
He also decided to use the rest of the stat points. He didn’t know how much difference they made, but there was no point hoarding them if it meant the difference between survival and death.
He threw 1 point each into Intelligence, Willpower and Spirit. Those three attributes appeared to be the most important for a Mage. He might have killed a lot of those goblins by whacking them over the head with his staff or using one of their short swords, but such tactics would only be effective for so long.
He paused before moving the desk as the attributes were distributed. Tilted his head to one side. Narrowed his eyes, furrowed his brow.
Did he feel smarter? How am I supposed to tell?
Xavier sighed and shoved the desk along the ground again. The heavy legs scraped against the floor. Sounded louder than it had before. Once he’d moved it aside, he readied himself, then opened the door quietly.
The hallway was clear. Not a person—or goblin—in sight. He worried about heading out to the courtyard. Worried about being in the open. Since he’d seen his spells had quests to upgrade them, he’d wished he had some sort of quest screen for defending this outpost.
Quest Log Activated
Current Quest: Protect a human settlement from invaders taking root on your world.
Defeat all of the enemy invaders.
Progress: 6/50
Rewards:
1. You will be sent to a pocket world.
2. Unknown item.
Huh. Xavier ran a hand through his hair. “Would have been nice if that had shown up from the start,” he muttered. He stared at the last reward. Unknown item. Could that be a better staff? Maybe new, untattered robes?
Forty-four more goblins to kill. He hoped they were all level 2.
Xavier gripped his staff in both hands and stalked down the hall as quietly as he could. Seeing that quest log gave him a renewed sense of urgency. Honestly, he hadn’t expected there to be so many. A part of him was terrified, as he should be. This was life and death, and all that.
But another part? Another part was excited. That was a lot of Mastery Points. He could rank-up his spells. Gain more levels. More stat points.
He felt giddy. Like he hadn’t in a long time. Not since he was a kid. A sense of adventure swelled inside him.
Cackling sounded around a corner. More goblins. He grinned. Slowed his stalking walk to a creep and popped his head around the corner.
Two goblins, standing alone. He scanned them.
{Lesser Goblin – Level 2}
{Lesser Goblin – Level 2}
Good. He could take two level 2 goblins. He needed to gain a lot of Spirit Energy. Enough to practice Spiritual Guidance.
And he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to use Telekinesis.
The goblins both faced away from him. They were speaking to each other, though Xavier didn’t understand what they were saying. The language was harsh and guttural, their voices high-pitched. Honestly, it sounded like they were mumbling to each other.
What do goblins have to talk about, anyway?
Xavier stepped into the hall, unseen, and cast Telekinesis. The goblins had been standing quite close together, and both of them were struck by his spell.
They flew farther than he’d expected. The vicious crack when they slammed into the ground made him wince, but no notifications appeared.
Still not strong enough to take them out in one. Perhaps if he’d flung them at a wall. Or off a roof…
Xavier sprinted at the closest goblin, which struggled back to its feet. He needed to use Spiritual Guidance. And not in the same way as before—he needed to draw on all three of its qualities.
Spiritual Strength. Spiritual Defence. Spiritual Magic.
He repeated those three things in his mind as he cast the spell, trying to imagine what they might feel like.
The power seized him, as it had before. Exactly as before. Fear alighted in the Lesser Goblin’s eyes. I’m not using all three. He didn’t know how he knew, he simply did. It was instinctual.
But he couldn’t hesitate.
He slammed the staff’s head into the goblin’s skull.
You have defeated a Level 2 Lesser Goblin!
You have gained 200 Mastery Points.
You have gained 200 Spirit Energy.
The skull caved in easily. Xavier felt how much stronger he’d hit. Far stronger than the last time he’d used Spiritual Guidance.
The silver sheen of the spell remained on him. It nudged him to bash in the other goblin’s skull. One smooth hit and it would be done for. But if he did that, he’d be one more step away from upgrading to Spiritual Trifecta.
He recalled the upgrade’s requirement:
Enhance one’s physical and mental strength and defence, as well as one’s magical power, while in combat.
It didn’t say use them all at once.
Xavier faced the last goblin. The goblin slashed out. Xavier, silver sheen still enveloping him, caught the sword on his staff, diverting it. The silver sheen wore off. Exhaustion struck him, but less severe than last time. Perhaps because his leg wasn’t injured, or because he’d expected it. Maybe even because he had more points in Spirit or Willpower than before. He didn’t know, but he took it as a win.
He tried to use the spell again, focusing on its defensive aspect.
Spiritual Guidance has a cooldown of 10 seconds. It cannot be used for another 7 seconds.
Of course, the cooldown! Xavier hadn’t known what the cooldown was before this fight. It was the first time he’d tried to use it twice in one fight.
Xavier backed away down the hall. Was this a stupid plan? Should he just attack the goblin, kill it while he had the chance?
Only if I have to. He wanted the Spiritual Trifecta upgrade. He needed to do something exceptional if he were to become powerful enough to be a Champion. Let’s send it on a merry chase for a few seconds.
He pretended to look afraid—which, admittedly, wasn’t the hardest thing in the world to do, considering the circumstances—and ran down the hall, toward the classroom he’d hidden in while figuring out his spells.
Every few seconds, he checked the cooldown. It wasn’t until he made it around the corner that it finally reached zero. He heard the goblin’s pursuit, its mad cackle echoing off the walls.
I wonder if that will attract more of the little beasts…
The second the cooldown ended, Xavier whirled. He didn’t know how powerful the Spiritual Defence would be, but he hoped it would be strong enough to take one of the goblin’s hits.
Because when the Lesser Goblin leapt into the air, short sword cocked in a backswing ready to strike, he hadn’t raised his staff to block the attack.
Xavier cast Spiritual Guidance. As the sword came down, a silver sheen enveloped him once more.