As Archie was about to walk past the corpses of the goats, he decided to chop off the ice hooves of the goats. Identifying them, he read:
Ice Hoof (Uncommon):
A hoof of an Icehoof Goat that lived in the Hoarfrost Highlands, imbued with the Lesser Element of Ice. Various uses in crafting.
“I can try to use this while in Soul Link to get the feel of a Lesser Element of Ice. Wait, I can also try to connect with nature and isolate the spirits of them both, maybe even create skills.” Archie realized, excited with the potential of creating ice and nature spells.
Archie’s spatial ring housed ten Ice Hooves before looking at his sword, as when chopping off the eleventh hoof his sword produced a sound like glass slightly chipping.
Identifying it, he read.
Iron Broadsword (Common):
An Iron Broadsword provided to those who have chosen the Warrior starting class. Due to prolonged use without being maintained, it has become nothing more than a dull blade. Effect: Soul-Bound. Status: Dull & Fractured. Requirements: Humanoid Race.
Producing an Audible exhale, Archie tossed both his sword and sheath into his spatial ring.
“I guess I will use my hatchet as my main weapon and start reusing my shield with my off-hand,” Archie said.
Walking downhill a bit somber, Archie got a rather novel idea, running downhill. A smile blossomed across his face and adrenaline came out in full swing and a shout of joy echoed throughout the highlands.
Wind rushed past Archie’s face, as he ran full speed downhill. With Archie’s Agility and Perception stats, he was able to narrowly avoid all rocks, roots, and trees and continue at full speed.
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“Ah…I missed this feeling; the wind rushing past me, the possible danger, the rush. I guess my bloodline was always with me after all, I did a lot of stupid stuff like this a lot when I was younger.” Archie said as the rush he got from his run died down.
Walking beside a tree, Archie quickly scaled the tree and activated his Nature's Meditation.
While in meditation, Archie saw new spirits alongside the ambient lesser elemental spirits. Most of these new spirits were shades of green, but some had flakes of blue, ‘Nature-Ice hybrid spirits?’ Archie assumed, thinking how different monsters in a certain game franchise had dual types, why couldn’t spirits?
Touching the nearest nature spirits, Archie felt warmth go through his fingertips. A serene feeling filled Archie; I can see why the stereotype of peaceful druids is a thing. If I felt this all the time, I could never be pissed for long, Archie smiled.
Cupping a nature spirit, Archie started to coat his hands with his own mana in an attempt to not absorb the nature spirit. When the nature spirit landed on Archie’s mana-coated hands, it floated in between, similar to a lily pad on water.
Archie tried his best to focus on the feeling, the nature spirit gave him serenity, but he could feel something else. Concentrating, Archie felt…purpose, duty…and life.
Wow. So, nature is really alive, like alive alive. Purpose and duty can only come from sentience if not semi-sentience, Archie thought, his mouth slightly agape at his discovery.
Gathering a couple of nature spirits, Archie infused them into his mana. Upon infusing them, Archie saw his mana gain a similar tint to the nature spirits, remembering that a major portion of his mana reserves had transformed into nature-attuned.
Leaving Nature’s Meditation, Archie saw the tree branch he stood atop of gained a few new budding branches and slightly greener leaves.
“Go figure; looks like infusing plants with nature mana makes them grow. What if I use mana strings to manipulate vines to restrain a doe?” Archie wondered while cupping his chin.
“I’ll figure that out later, I wanna focus on making a new effigy for now,” Archie said before hopping off the tree branch and taking out his hatchet.
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Archie sat once again beside a tree stump with a chopped log in hand. Closing his eyes, Archie tried focusing on what object gave the feelings of serenity and life. Only one image stood out to him, an ironic one, a tree.
Taking out his carving knife, Archie started to carve out a Hoarfrost Pine, using the Pine in front of him for reference.
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Looking at his new tree-shaped effigy, Archie identified it.
Effigy of Health (Uncommon):
A pine wood health effigy made in the design of a Hoarfrost Tree, imbued with the feelings of serenity and life of a lesser nature spirit, and empowered with lesser nature spirits. Restores a total of 750 health for the one who breaks effigy. Cooldown duration: 1 hour.
Archie then looked at his many notifications.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 28 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
***
*Your Profession has reached Lv 31 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Your Race has reached Lv 39 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
***
*Your Race has reached Lv 41 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Shaman Profession Skills Available. Choose one of the options*
[Hex of Weakness (Common)]: The shaman calls upon the spirits to drain an enemy’s strength, weakening their attack. The weakening of the attack is proportional to the mana you use when casting the hex.
[Shatter Spirit (Common)]: The shaman calls upon the spirits to attack their foe’s soul, fracturing it minorly. Nevertheless, due to the fragility of the soul, your foe’s magical connection is disrupted.
[Connection with Fauna (Common)]: The shaman’s bond with wildlife allows them to soothe animals, making them easier to handle and more responsive.
[Floral Extraction (Initiate)]: When imbuing a plant with nature-attuned mana, the shaman can collect components of the plant without causing harm to the plant. This skill both preserves the health and fosters future growth of the plant. Grants insight into the plants around you.
[Imbue Soil (Common)]: When imbuing soil with an infusion of both spirits and nature-attuned mana, the shaman increases the quantity and quality of the plants raised in that particular area. Enhancing the growth and quality of crop cycles after the skill is activated.
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“Imbue Soil is useless in my opinion, same with Connection with Fauna; the only animal I got along with would be that bear. Floral Extraction would be useful when harvesting plants and gathering wood for effigies since trees are plants. Between Shatter Spirit and Hex of Weakness, Shatter Spirit would be my choice because it would be my only way of fighting a mage from afar.” Archie mulled as he looked over his options.
“I guess Shatter Spirit due to my meager way of attack from afar and to counter a mage’s spell.” Archie decided, selecting Shatter Spirit.
“Ok, so essentially a shaman’s Potion of Health. Effigy of Healing is great with enhanced regeneration, but instantaneous health in a fight is invaluable.” Archie said while placing the Effigy of Health in his spatial ring.
“Alright, now it’s time for voodoo making,” Archie said while taking out the Voodoo Doll of Harm from his spatial ring.
Looking at the doll, the doll fit perfectly within his palm, looking eerily similar to a stuffed bear. The doll was made from many tightly packed twigs forming a general outline of a bear with thin vines emphasizing the facial and body features. Archie could see fur tufts through the twigs of the ‘bear’s’ torso, ‘bear fur’ Archie assumed, through the twigs of the ‘bear’s’ torso. The doll was both burnt and stained, the stain was black, ‘Possibly the rot hex’ Archie assumed.
Realizing something, Archie said, “Voodoo Doll of Harm…Does that mean voodoo dolls could be used for other things?” left hand cupping his chin, thinking about possible uses of a voodoo doll.
Unable to think of any uses off the top of his head, Archie started to shave off thin strips of wood from a log to use as vines. A couple of minutes later, Archie got up from the ground and went around the forest to grab twigs and other materials needed for making voodoo dolls.
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Archie sat back down against the tree stump with various piles of material beside him; a large pile of chopped logs to his right, an even larger pile of twigs to his left, and a medium-sized pile of thin wood strips in front of him.
Archie took a handful of thicker twigs and arranged them into a round shape, trying to form the tortoise’s shell, his 136 Agility vastly improving his motor skills. Bending and shifting the twigs slightly, he formed the dome-like shell of the tortoise, with thin wooden strips locking in the shape of the dome around the edges.
Moving on to forming the body of the tortoise, Archie attached the upper shell with an oval-like shape of twigs symbolizing the torso of the tortoise. Taking out some of the pieces of keratin from his spatial ring and stuffed them into the torso of the semi-complete doll.
After placing the pieces of keratin within the twig doll, Archie formed the bottom shell of the tortoise. Archie then formed four oval-like stubs made of twigs and wrapped in thin wooden shavings and attached them to the doll.
Archie then identified the twig tortoise doll.
Twig Doll (Common) – Filled:
Hoarfrost tree wood twigs formed together, depicting an outline of a tortoise and filled with the keratin of a Frostiron Tortoise.
The next step was to channel the anger and pain that he felt towards the tortoise. In an attempt to visualize his emotions of hatred and pain; Archie looked down at his chest and saw the claw marks that almost ripped him to shreds. Channeling those emotions into the doll, Archie identified the doll once more.
Imbued Twig Doll (Common) – Filled:
Hoarfrost tree wood twigs formed together, depicting an outline of a tortoise, imbued with the feeling of hatred and pain of an F-Grade human and filled with the keratin of a Frostiron Tortoise.
The final step was to empower the doll with malevolent spirits. “What the hell are malevolent spirits?” Archie wondered.
Activating Soul Link, Archie looked around and noticed the ambient elemental spirits that reside around him in the Hoarfrost Highlands for the first time. The spirits looked similar to the spirits he saw in the oak forest in the Shaman profession dungeon, but now the majority of spirits were a light blue color.
Unfortunately, Archie was not able to see, nor sense any malevolent spirits around him. Just as he was about to exit his Soul Link, Archie looked at the Voodoo doll of Harm and saw murky red spirits lingering around the doll.
I can try to funnel the spirits into the imbued twig doll. Archie thought while holding both the imbued twig doll in one hand and the Voodoo Doll of Harm in the other. That might do something.
Forming mana strings around the spirits within the voodoo doll, Archie tried dragging them into the imbued twig doll. Initially, the malevolent spirits within the Voodoo Doll of Harm showed resistance with the concept of leaving the voodoo doll, but after channeling more mana and concentrating, they gave in and went inside the imbued twig doll.
Exiting Soul Link, Archie identified both dolls.
Voodoo Doll of Harm (Common) – Filled:
Hoarfrost tree wood twigs formed together, depicting an outline of a tortoise, imbued with the feeling of hatred and pain of an F-Grade human, filled with the keratin of a Frostiron Tortoise, and empowered with malevolent spirits. Damage inflicted upon the voodoo doll will affect the entity whose essence is trapped within. Effect: Lesser Harm Infliction. Requirement: Lv 30+.
Imbued Twig Doll (Common) – Filled:
Oak Wood twigs formed together, depicting an outline of a bear, imbued with the feeling of hatred and pain of an F-Grade goblin and filled with the fur of a black bear.
“So, with the spirits leaving the bear voodoo doll, it became an imbued doll, makes sense…I guess since the spirits I funneled into the tortoise voodoo doll were probably not ‘fresh’ it didn’t become Uncommon.” Archie analyzed while placing the imbued bear doll in his spatial ring.
Getting an idea, Archie took out the remaining pieces of keratin from his spatial ring and activated his Soul Link once more. Looking down at the pieces of keratin in his palm, Archie saw some slightly darker blue spirits than the lesser-ice elemental spirits that surrounded him.
Grabbing both spirits from the keratin and from the environment around him, Archie manipulated them to enter the new Voodoo Doll of Harm.
Deactivating his Soul Link, Archie Identified the doll.
Voodoo Doll of Harm (Uncommon) – Filled:
Hoarfrost tree wood twigs formed together, depicting an outline of a tortoise, imbued with the feeling of hatred and pain of an F-Grade human, filled with the keratin of a Frostiron Tortoise, and empowered with lesser malevolent and ice spirits. Damage inflicted upon the voodoo doll will affect the entity whose essence is trapped within. Effect: Low Harm Infliction. Requirement: Lv 40+.
Smiling at the Uncommon rarity on the voodoo doll, Archie looked at the notifications he had ignored throughout the process.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 32 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
***
*Your Profession has reached Lv 36 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Your Race has reached Lv 42 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
Skill Upgrade: [Mana Manipulation (Common → Uncommon)]
Mana Manipulation (Uncommon):
You have gained the ability to tap into the raw energy of mana. You have moved on from being a novice and have become adept at controlling mana within yourself and your surroundings. You have demonstrated proficiency in manipulating your mana into both spirits around you and spirits within items. This skill provides foundational knowledge, enabling you to progressively enhance your ability to channel, control, and shape mana.
Archie opened his status page and saw:
Archie Gracefield
Race: Human F-Grade Lv 42
Class: Warrior Lv 41
Profession: Shaman Lv 36
Health: 1491/1491
Mana: 523/610
Stamina: 950/970
Stats:
Vitality: 142(149)
Strength: 152(159)
Endurance: 98
Agility: 142
Intelligence: 147
Wisdom: 61
Willpower: 61(64)
Perception: 130
Free Points: 50
Skills:
Basic One-Handed Weapon Mastery (Uncommon)
Basic Light-Shield Mastery (Common)
Identify (Initiate)
Savage Charge (Rare)
Adrenaline Rush (Epic)
Warrior's Resilience (Rare)
Nature's Meditation (Epic)
Mana Manipulation (Uncommon)
Spirit Link (Epic)
Effigy-Carving (Common)
Material Insight (Uncommon)
Retaliation (Uncommon)
Hex of Enfeeblement (Uncommon)
Unstable Power Strike (Uncommon)
Taunt (Uncommon)
Shatter Spirit (Common)
Bloodline:
Adrenaline Junkie (Unique) [+5% to Strength and +5% to Willpower]
Affinity:
Greater Nature Affinity (Epic)
Titles Collected:
Bloodline Progenitor [+10 Vitality and +5% Vitality]
Tutorial Points:
7,574
After reading through his status page, Archie started to feel a bit hungry. I’ve been focusing on my profession since the morning and it’s almost evening time, Archie thought. Having left the goat corpses unattended on the hill since morning, they were most likely eaten or carried off by wolves or other predators. With another growl of his stomach, he headed into the forest, searching for something to eat.