William spent a couple hours more at the fire, watching as more people gradually left to go back into the huts. Eventually, across all three dying fires, only William, Jane, John, Old Wallace and Stacey, remained. The two of them extinguished their fires and approached William’s small group.
John spoke up, “William? Can we join you three? We want to discuss something.”
William was tired of speaking, but became a little bit more alert then. He was unsure what they both wanted to speak to him about that warranted waiting until everyone else had left. He then noticed that Stacey had a similar expression as Wallace and John.
“You can,” William replied, gesturing to the sit around the fire, now a small flame licking a bed of red embers and white ash.
He saw relief show on their faces. Jane didn’t have the same expression though. She seemed equally confused and curious as William was.
William decided to break the silence first, “What’s up? It seems like the three of you have something important on your mind.”
John nodded, “We're all mages you see. We each lit one of these fires. We also all reached level two then.”
“And you need my advice on stats?” William interrupted.
“Yeahh, we don’t really get it,” John replied slightly sheepishly, and as William looked at Wallace and Stacey, he saw them both looking a little bit sheepish too.
He also saw his sister stifling a smile. Did she...find this...entertaining? He let out a tired sigh but nodded.
“Alright, what spells did you all get?” William asked, and waited as the three mages shared a couple looks.
Stacey spoke up quietly, “Fire-bolt and Mana-ward for all three of us.”
The three mages clearly had planned this conversation earlier and were waiting for William to be alone with them. He paused at the skills.
Fire-bolt was self explanatory, but he was curious about the Mana-ward skill, “Read out the Mana-ward description.”
Stacey complied quickly:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Mana-ward – As a Mana manipulator, you know the flow of Mana with in the natural Leylines of the world. Using this, you can conjure Mana based barriers at any point you can see, up to four meters by four meters in size. Strength amplified by higher Intelligence. Weak to physical attacks, but will deflect most low level magical skills and magical weaponry. [Cool-down – 30 Seconds][Cost – 25MP]
{End}
The skill was pretty good. He decided to use the same logic that he used for Jane and regurgitated the same advice he had given her. They all allocated the points without question. William then realized an important point that he should have considered before giving advice; secondary classes.
He decided to just ask them and not mention his little error. It was early enough for it not to matter right? “What secondary classes do you all have? Mine's enchanter.”
He noticed that Wallace and Jane both looked at him surprised as they both replied at the same time, “So am I.”
His eyebrows lifted and William replied, “Huh. Cool. Stacey, John, what about you two?”
John spoke first, “Archer.”
Then Stacey, “Scout.”
William smiled a bit. Her name was Stacey.
He quickly shook his head mentally and considered something, voicing it quickly, “Where are your physical weapons? I would advise not leaving them unattended.”
The pair looked confused before Stacey said, “We...didn’t get any. We use our hands for the magic stuff. Though Wallace got some enchanting tools. I’m guessing Jane did too?”
Jane nodded at that looking further confused than before at the conversation. William was significantly more confused however as the answers he were getting created a bunch more questions. Why do Mages use their hands yet Medics use Staves? Why didn’t the others get weapons for their Secondary Classes? Did it matter which order you picked the classes in? He had no clue and had a feeling that those answers wouldn’t come anytime soon. He decided to do the easy thing and push them out of his thoughts.
He did want to know something related to his enchanting however, “What runes do you have for your enchanting classes?”
Jane and Wallace answered and William discovered that they each had a different pair of starting wards. Jane had Purification and Restoration, and Wallace had Syphon and Shield. William then realized that the runes given to start depended on your other class. Apparently the game system liked to give noobs the tools to attempt survival at least.
William came up with a good idea; each enchanter could share their runes and expand all their available runes to use. He proposed this to Jane and Wallace. Both agreed and William started by drawing the two runes he knew from his mind’s eye in the mud. There wasn’t any immediate success, but then he tried a different approach. He mentally willed a small portion of his MP into the runes.
They both lit up and William said, “Both of you put your hands on these and try to will them into your mind.”
The pair did so without question and William saw the Mana flow through their hands and into their bodies. Judging from the smiles on their faces, it was a success. They proceed then to do the same with their runes as John and Stacey watched with a surprising amount of interest. William read the prompt that appeared with a smile:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{New Runes Learned:}
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Purification
{Description}
A rune used to remove plagues, poisons, and curses from items and to prevent further such future effects.
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Restoration
{Description}
A rune used to heal the individual using the enchanted item gradually over time and to restore the item itself over time at the same rate.
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Syphon
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
{Description}
A rune used to drain the HP of an enemy injured with an item enchanted with this rune. The drain effect adds healing to the item user at 5% of the total drained HP.
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Shield
{Description}
A rune used to manipulate ambient Mana in the air when activated to generate a miniature equivalent of the Mana-ward skill on the enchanted item. Effects will diminish 20% of incoming physical force, and 50% of magical force.
{End}
The runes were sweet. He had so many ideas. William didn’t hesitate to try something possibly dumb with what little information he had. He drew his sword, then put it on the ground in front of him before pulling out his enchanter tools. He opened the box and found a small metal cylinder with a thin metallic tip on it. William picked it up and held the tip over the blade. Nothing happened. He tried to drag the tip along the blade with some force but it didn’t even scratch the blade. William examined the tool and noticed a small slider on the side of the tool. He pulled it back and found a quartz shaped crystal that was completely clear. It looked like an Essence Core, but could tell that the mineral was drained just from how plain it looked.
William pulled out one of the blue Mana Essence Cores and put it into the tool, closing the slider again. The device hummed to life and started vibrating lightly but steadily. Everyone looked on in confusion at the display. He realized then that they probably knew nothing about Essence Cores. As he went to engrave the Syphon rune onto his sword, William explained about Cores to the group. He also mentioned and quickly brushed over that he took some from the bandit he killed not giving chances for questions. William noticed that the engraving was so easy. The device wasn’t like a rotary tool from earth that tried to get out of your control but instead, this was a tool that worked with the user to fulfil it’s role.
Once William had finished engraving he spoke up, “Step back slightly everyone, just in case this goes bad.”
They didn’t hesitate to make some space at that.
William closed his eyes with his hand over the rune as he willed the skill Runic Imbuing into action:
- Runic Imbuing – Enchanter Skill: Through channeling magic into runes you can raise any objects and even people to new heights. Use this ability to magically etch a rune onto the desired target based off of known runes to you. Class provides 2 runes upon selection. [Cool-down – 10 Hours] [Cost – 10MP]
The effect succeeded without issue, but the description confused William. The skill said that it magically etches a rune. So why did he have a tool to physically etch runes? He opened his eyes and was gobsmacked, the same as everyone else was as they drew close to examine the blade. The rune glowed red and the blade now had a thin hair-width red aura around the blade. William grinned and grabbed the sword quickly bringing the rune near to his eyes to examine it. He could see that within his etched rune, a smaller etch pattern of Mana lay within. Had the physical etching acted as a guide for the Mana to etch? That would make the most sense but he couldn’t be sure of it.
“William, that sword looks really menacing with the red outline,” Jane said, sounding slightly nervous.
William grinned and sheathed the blade. He noticed that the aura didn’t show through the sheath and was relieved. William didn’t want to give any info away for free to potential enemies he encountered.
William turned his attention to the beautiful sight of the level up prompt he had just received:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Class: Enchanter – Level 2 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Race: Human – Level 6 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Allocation:}
Would you like to Allocate Unused points (10) to attributes?
{Y/N}
{End}
William immediately chose to put the two enchanter points into Intelligence then allocated four points into each of Dexterity and Strength, two points into Wisdom, and split the last two points into Vitality and Charisma.
William brought up his status changes:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Attribute Changes:}
Strength – 31 > 35
Dexterity – 30 > 34
Intelligence – 18 > 20
Wisdom – 18 > 20
Vitality – 23 > 24
Charisma – 11 > 12
{Resource Pool Changes:}
SP 310 > 350
MP 180 > 200
HP 230 > 240
{End}
They were some good changes.
He saw that the others were staring at him as he had been staring into space for a long moment, “Sorry, levelled up. Was considering a few things. All good now though.”
Jane sulked slightly and said, “I want to level up more too, and you got a level from just that one enchantment?”
William sympathized then did something on instinct to cheer up his little sister; he decided to give her an Essence Core.
William smiled then said, “Hold out your hand Jane.”
She looked slightly unsure but nodded and did so. William pulled out another Blue Essence Core and dropped it into her hand.
“Do with it what you will,” he said, then pulled out another and handed it to Wallace.
The older man smiled warmly and accepted it, “Thank you lad, I think this'll help greatly.” And then took William’s still extended hand and shook it.
William smiled slightly at that.
William spoke up again, glancing between Jane and Wallace, “I would advise making sure you know what you want to enchant and what effects would best suit your needs. No need to rush, so sleep on it and consider options carefully.”
The pair nodded and William turned his attention to John and Stacey who were still looking between the sword and etching tool, “As for you two, I would suggest coming with me when I go to the woodland in the morning, in fact, we should all go as a group. We can work together to gather more supplies and potentially get you guys levelled up a little bit. I think if we have any chance against the bandit event we face, then having as many of us at higher levels as possible would be the best plan to survive.”
Everyone agreed to that quickly. William was pleased until he realized that he would potentially need to be sociable for an even more extended period of time. Suddenly the prospect wasn’t so joyous. However, he would still do it, since the lives of him and his family were at risk. Maybe he could also build a few new bridges with the others in their little group.
William then glanced at each of them and it struck him then that they all used and needed MP in some way. He also remembered that the only two ways to regain MP was to use a potion or to meditate. He expected that everyone had one of each starter potion like him, but those would be best suited to an emergency scenario. William had been riding level ups and buffs to his MP to keep using it but his current pool was incredibly low, so he would need to recharge it.
William extinguished the final flame and embers of the fire then said, “We all need to try to use meditation to replenish our MP. Look in your mind at the description and try to regain as much MP as possible over the night. Also-”
He paused, as he now had no light pollution blocking his view, it revealed the outline of a single figure on one of the hills to what William now assumed the south. He spotted an outline of a bow over the shoulder, and the silhouette wielding two daggers in hand. He was just stood there, unmoving. William pointed it out. The others went white.
Jane whispered with a voice dripping with worry, “Wh-what do we do?”
The group was all looking at the silhouette about two hundred meters away from them.
William sighed then drew his sword, “Each of you pick a hut and wake the others. Say there's a bandit scout nearby and to be on guard in the huts. No one, not even you four come out until I give the all clear. As the higher levelled people of the village, you need to protect the others.”
The silhouette shrank into a crouch as it started to creep down the hill until it was no longer visible against the dimly moonlit hill. William spotted the scared reactions of the others who had seen the same thing.
William then started walking towards the same direction that the silhouette approached from. “Go now. If any of the others come out, I can’t guarantee their safety though so make sure they stay put.”
He heard the four of them separate and run to different huts.
With that out of the way, it was time to vent some of the social anxiety on his upcoming foe. He knew that by the end of the night, one of them would be dead, and he would need to kill yet another human to live himself. That was his world now and he found the thought of killing the approaching bandit only slightly disturbing. Maybe he was a monster, or becoming one, but he hoped to at least become a good one if such a thing existed.