As I emerge from the sewers I am greeted by a refreshing breeze. I quickly take a few breaths to try and flush my lungs of the vile gas that passes for air in those sewers. Nothing like decaying excrement to really make you appreciate fresh clean air. After a few moments of revelry I replace the manhole cover and make my way back to the Adventurer’s guild. On my way back the crowds make way for me and avoid me like the plague. Not that I can really blame them though, I smell like I just rolled around in dung, which I practically did. As I return to the large and imposing building that is the Adventure’s Guild I enter the front door and notice that there are less people inside than there were this morning. ‘Guess they are out doing contracts.’ I look over to the bar and see Master Broton flipping through the Guild Tome. As I make my way over to him he looks up and smile to me. “Back already I see. Got a few new scratch mark, fresh blood on you. I take it that you found some success?” he asks. I give him a large smile and say, “Yeah, I killed 11 rats and collected their tails. There was a unexpected development so I thought I should come back.” “Oh, and what development is that?” he asks. I grin even harder and shake with excitement as I tell him, “After a rough fight with those rats my core finally decided to develop.” “Congratulations,” he exclaims, “so I hope it is safe to assume that as a former ‘cripple’, for lack of a better word for it, you have no idea how to use and manipulate mana. You probably came back hoping to find help with Body Enhancement and Spell Formation. Am I right?” I laugh sheepishly, “You are right sir, when my core developed I could feel the mana coursing through my body. It felt like it was enhancing my flesh, bones, organs and muscles. I have no idea how to perform Body Enhancement, so I let it do its own thing. Though I thought it would be a good idea to learn some things before risking my life again.”
Master Broton chuckles and gives me a kind smile. “Body Enhancement is pretty easy. Its all about knowing how you want your body to develop and then focusing the mana in the desired area. You must also know how to balance the different parts of your body and not over develop them and create an imbalance.” “Can you explain” I ask. “Sure, what I mean is that if you want to be a large muscled front line fighter then you should focus the mana in the muscles themselves. Nourish the muscles and allow them to grow and develop. Though it would be foolish to neglect other parts of your body. Lets say you overdevelop your muscles but you neglect your bones, your increased weight would put alot of strain on your bones. This can even cause you to break your own bones due to them not being able to handle your strength. If you over neglect your blood vessels or flesh then when your muscles flex it can cause ripping and tearing. I remember an old tale of a big muscle head of a man who spent years and years focusing solely on his muscles. After years of this he flexed to see how strong he had become. Do you know what happened?” I think about it for a second but can’t thing of anything so I shake my head and he continues. “ The man flexed his muscle and ripped clear out of his skin, hahahaha. His muscles grew so mush that his skin couldn’t take the strain and tore and ripped. The man died on the spot. I don’t know if this story is true, but it is a good reminder to remember balance.” Hearing what Master Broton just told me, I can’t believe it. My mouth falls open and I just stare at him in utter amazement. “The man ripped his own skin off and died. All because he didn’t strengthen his skin and he over enhanced his muscles.” I shake my head at this. “I don’t know if I believe the story is true or not but I can at least understand the importance of balance in training” I say.
“Thats just one example of how imbalance in enhancement can have, adverse effects,” he says, “If you over enhance the organs, the heart for example, it can tear your blood vessels. If you over enhance the blood vessels then you can make it more difficult to allow blood flow. If you over enhance the skin then you can limit your mobility. I don’t think it is possible to over enhance the bones, stronger bones are always a good thing, though you have to remember to also enhance the joints. Strong bones do you little good if you have weak joints. And another thing you must realize. Every ounce of mana you use to enhance your enhance your body can not be used to enhance your core. As mana is drawn out of the air and into the body it can either be used to enhance the body, core or soul. Mana used in the body will merge with it and be lost to you. Mana used to enhance your core will expand your core’s capacity to hold more mana, basically allowing you to use more magic. Mana that is used to enhance the Soul will make your soul stronger. Making it more difficult to damage with soul attacks commonly used by certain kinds of undead and other vile and dangerous creatures. Soul strength can also improve the power of your own soul attacks. Though I would advise against the use of soul attacks and soul magic in general. Even if your soul attack harms your opponent it can also harm you. It it a double edged sword. Plus there are many people who abhor soul mage’s. Some believe all soul mage’s to be vile and evil people who only view lives as sources of power. While many soul mage’s are like that not all of them are. And I would say that the same can be said for mage’s and Body Enhancer’s. Evil is the choice, not the tool.” I contemplate what Master Broton has told me and take it all in and memorize it before I reply, “I think I understand. Everything is about balance. If I over commit to Body Enhancement I will be sacrificing spell power. If I over commit to Mana Capacity I will have a weaker body that those who focus on Body Enhancement. And everyone should develop their soul. Right?” I ask. “That is right,”he says. “ Now you said that your mana enhanced your body automatically after it developed. This is the first I have heard of that. Usually when the core develops all enhancement must be done manually. The only reason I could think that it would auto enhance like that is if your body was too weak to support your core. That would also explain your late development. Would you mind taking out your Status Slate so I could have a look?” “Sure,” I reply, “ I haven’t looked at it since my core first developed. I was so excited that it slipped my mind to check it again after the enhancement finished. I am quite curious to see what has changed.” I retrieve my Status Slate from my back pack and place it down so we can both see it.
Zyrek Ferolux
Age:10
Gender: Male
Mana:1/1
Mana Regen: 4 hours
Cognizance:1.04
Strength:1.04
Vitality: 1.25/1.3
Constitution: 1.2/1.2
Resilience: 1.22
Dexterity: 1.1
Agility: 1.12
Soul Force:1.03
Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma
I am shocked by what I see. Such a massive spike in my attributes and in such a short amount of time. “It looks like I might be right” says Master Broton, “ Your core is very strong. It not only required you grow more before it developed, even at your age it probably had to sacrifice some of its initial capacity to enhance your body so you could handle it. Thats why your health attributes raised such a significant amount. And it seems you have 3 affinities, that is truly rare. Only half of the population has any elemental affinity, and less than 10% have 2 affinities. Those with 3 affinities make up less than .1%. And to top it off you have a very rare affinity. The magma affinity can only occur with in those with a high affinity to Fire and Earth. Or maybe its the opposite and those gifted with the Magma affinity also get high affinity with the other 2. There have only been 2 people that I know of who have had the Magma affinity. Both were powerful mage’s from thousands of years ago. I happen to be a Lighting Mage so the most can do is give you a basic understanding on spell development and some help learning Core Enhancement in addition to Soul Enhancement. Though I have someone in mind who has fire and earth affinities so he should be able to help you develop some spells.”
While I am quite happy to receive help learning the basics of Enhancement and spell creation I can’t help but wonder why Master Broton is willing to help me so much. We have only met today and all I have done for the Adventure’s Guild is kill a few rodents, so I decide to ask. “Why are you helping me so much, you hardly know me? I haven’t even made any real contribution to the guild, killing a few rodents hardly counts as even work compared to the things normal adventurer’s deal with daily. I don’t think I have anything you want so I am confused as to why you are being so helpful to me?”
Master Broton laughs at me, he does that alot it seems. “True, killing a few rodents is work that is beneath all but the weakest of adventurer’s. I too doubt you could possibly have anything that could interest me, but I am a Guild Master for the Valoran branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. The Adventurer’s Guild spans the entire continent of Triesen. We have branches in every major city in every country. You may not know this but Triesen is actually only a small place in a massive world. It is the goal of the Adventurer’s Guild to find and nurture talented individuals. If Triesen were to go through an extended period of weakness we could quite easily be conquered by an outside force. We may not be the biggest mountain in the range, so all we can hope to do is be one damned dangerous mountain.” I am shocked by what Master Broton says, I had no idea the world was so massive. I know of the the Dwarves and Gnomish lands, Mount Kilrock, to the north of here. I know of the Elven lands, Eledor, to the east. South of Barret lies the Ork lands, Urganga Confederacy. The only other land I knew of was the Great Wilderness to the east. Just Triesen is so massive that it would take years if not longer to walk from one end to the other. It would probably take hundreds of years to explore just the surface level of Triesen. Add to that the rumors of massive expanses underneath us, huge labyrinth created by Dark Elves who know how long ago. To find out that all of that is but a small rock in a pond, I can honestly say that this is bigger news than my core forming. “I had no Idea the world was so large,” I honestly say. “I don’t think you can even imagine,” says Master Broton, “From the stories I have been told, my words give this world no justice when it comes to size or scale of power. But back to my point, It is the Adventurer’s Guild’s self imposed duty to nurture talent. I have a feeling that you are such a talent. Follow me to my office. There is a crystal called Mana Stone. What is useful about his stone is that it holds mana at a constant rate in comparison to its size. That is to say that if you had 2 mana stones, one was twice as large as the other, then it would also hold twice as much mana. The Adventurer’s Guild uses these stones as a resource for their mana. The mana can be drawn into the body. Each stone holds much more mana than what is found in the air so many adventure’s buy them to train. We can use these mana stones to test your bodies mana resistance. Each and every person on the planet is limited by how much mana their body can handle in a day. Some can only draw from a few Mana Stones a day. Others can completely drain dozens is a single sitting. The Mana resistance determines how much mana the body can absorb without adverse effects such as mana sickness. People who can absorb more mana can train up faster and reach farther in their training.” As Master Broton is explaining this he begins to walk from behind the bar and over to a nearby room, he opens the door and enter. I follow him. Inside the room is a desk. One chair behind it with two in front. Bookshelves are all around the wall. This library is actually comparable to my fathers. The room is quite large, probably 30x15 feet. Master Broton walks over to the desk and pulls out a small crystal roughly the size of a gold coin. “This is the standard size of a Mana Stone” he says. “The amount of mana in this one stone is probably equivalent to the amount of man in this very room. So now you can see how useful these little rocks are.” He tosses me the Mana stone. It is quite odd. The stone feels warm to the touch. It is heavy for its size. As i move it around to examine it i notice how the soft blue light inside of the stone moves around, like it is liquid trapped inside. “For this test we will see how much mana you can draw out in sixty seconds. This will help give us a rate for your absorption of mana. The average adventure can drain one mana stone in about an hour. Even with that speed of absorbtion, training with mana stones exclusively can be quite expensive. Now go ahead and concentrate on the stone, try to feel the mana inside of the stone and draw it into your Mana core. Compress and feed it to your core, making it apart of your core by doing so. I would suggest moving the mana in strands, wrap them around the core tighly and allow them to enter your core from many different locations.”
I listen to Master Broton’s words and nod. I calm my breathing and feel for the mana within the stone. The mana feels really thick, like mercury. I begin to draw the mana into my body. It is slow at first but then it feels like a dam is opened as the warm liquid floods into my body. I try my best to direct it into my core though only half actually makes it. As the mana travels through my body it is greedily absorbed by my blood and it then gets dispersed to the rest of my body. “Nothing I can do about that now, I will just have to ask after” I think to myself. As the mana finally makes its way to my core I follow Master Brotons advice, I break the mana flow into several smaller streams, I wind them around my core and begin to feed them into my core. It feel as my core heats up and begins to hungrily absorb the mana that I am feeding it. I continue to draw mana from the stone for about 45 seconds. Not once did my body or core stop devouring the mana that I pulled into my body, it felt like I could absorb even more, and faster. I decided to try something. I locked onto the mana in the stone and try to pull as much as I can from the mana stone. There is a little resistance from the mana stone at first but it quickly disappears. The stone shatters in my hands as its entire capacity of mana is drawn into my body. Again, half is hungrily and greedily devoured by my blood and is transported through my body, it almost feels like fire is flowing through my veins. The last half of the mana makes its way to my core where is pours in nonstop. My core pulls in the mana and devours it to the last drop. As the last bit of the mana gets absorbed by my bones, blood, muscles, organ, skin and core, I feel as if my whole body is on fire. I find it strange though, it is hot but strangely comforting. I open my eyes and see Master Broton looking at me with a shocked expression on his face. His eye brows are raised, his mouthing is hanging open. “What did you just do?” he asks “To drain a mana stone in less than a minute, at the age of ten, that is completely unheard of. The average adventurer would have taken an hour to pull that much mana into their body and process it. How?” I am puzzled myself so I explain what I experienced. “Only half of the mana made it to my core. The other half was taken by my body. As I feed the mana into my core it constantly devoured it without slowing. So I tried to see how much I could pull. I drew in on the mana as much as a could. That’s when the Mana Stone shattered and the rest of the mana entered my veins. As the mana flowed through my veins it felt really hot and comfortable at the same time. Almost like a thick fire flowing through my veins, but it didn’t hurt. It actually felt really good.”
“Ho ho ho ho ho ho, this is quite marvelous and unexpected. You by boy seem to have an ungodly high mana resistance. Maybe you are the child of powerful mages or body enhancers, maybe you have a mutation that increases your mana resistance. Whatever may be the case, you are quite fortunate. The only thing really limiting your growth is going to be finances. With a resistance like yours, you are basically a bottomless pit for money. Just that Mana Stone you used is worth one gold. If you are able to keep up that same level of absorbtion all day you could easily devour thousands of gold in a single day, ho ho ho ho ho hoho.” “What,” I exclaim, “ one gold per mana stone. One gold can feed a family for a year. A loaf of bread only costs a few copper. You can buy a decent iron weapon for a couple of silver. Yet that little rock is so expensive?” I have a hard time coming to terms with the reasoning. “Yes, that little rock is pretty valuable.” Master Broton explains. “That Mana Stone holds as much mana as what is in this room. Now think if everyone in this city who trains their core did so without the Mana Stones. This city would be constantly devoid of mana. Training and meditating here would be worthless. Mana Stones hold mana and allow practitioners to train their cores and bodies without needing to rely on the environment. Mana Stone is only found underground in area’s of high mana concentration. The other way to get them is to make them. The process of making them is quite costly. Mages have to sacrifice part of their own core to form the stone. You have to pull the mana from your body and crystallize it in the air. There are entire institutes and business’s that specialize in the mass manufacturing and selling of these Mana Stones.” The more I hear the more it makes sense. In order to form a Mana Stone one must sacrifice some of their own mana capacity. The amount is small but you must still replace the mana from the naturally occurring mana to regain what is lost. “So,” Master Broton continues, “Only those with poor mana resistance and aptitude choose to make money in this way. They stagnate in their power but they are able to live a comfortable life. Many find it worth it.” “I understand now.” I reply.
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The next few hours pass as Master Broton teaches me how to feel for my soul and direct mana to it to strengthen it. He also explains the basics of spell formation. Basically, using magic to effect the environment can be spontaneous, but it is highly inefficient. This is why all mages develop their own spells. This simply comes down to rote memorization. Lets take a simple fireball for example. First you must give the fireball shape. Simple as most fireballs are spherical. Next you must adjust how much mana is in the fireball. This mana is the fuel for the spell. Next you must decide how hot the spell is. The hotter the spell the more mana it requires. Then you must designate the way the spell moves. Fireballs usually fly straight while maintaining their form until upon contact or a certain range,they explode. Every aspect of the spell must be designated or things can go awkward. If you forget to designate the heat of the fireball it could end up doing little to nothing or overdrawing your mana pool and creating a fireball of several thousands of degree’s. Neither is good. So every fire mage has a different fireball tailor made for themselves. Everyone of their fireballs differ. Some have larger area of effect explosions. Some are hotter than others. It all depends on how the mage developed their spell. So to develop your spell you decide on all the aspects you want, then to you name your spell. This helps your body and mind passively remember what you want, like muscle memory. It works similar to a words definition. If I say boat, you immediately imagine a boat with sails or oars or whatever. You immediately design your idea of “boat” in your head. That is your boat. So for my “fireball” spell by body will remember my parameters after I learn my spell. With Master Broton’s guidance I manage to create two of my own spells. I created Fireball and Fire Cone. Fireball is spherical, travels in a straight path and detonates upon contact. It explodes into a five feet AOE. Fire Cone projects fire from my hands into a cone shape from my palm. The cone extends for five feet. Both of my spells burn at 220 degrees, Just slightly hotter that the temp that water boils. So while my spell will be quite effective against flesh it will do little to armored enemies. I could make my spell hotter though Master Broton tells me to wait. It would be unwise to make spells that require more mana than I can handle. He says I can always update my spells later.
Master Broton called an end to my short training session later on in the evening. He told me he would contact someone who might be willing to take me into their adventuring group and offer me a place to grow as a mage. I still had a few hours of light left and several hours before I would go to sleep so I decided I would head back into the sewers to test my new spells, body, and make a few more copper before calling it a night.
As I find myself back at the manhole I had used earlier I am greeted by the repugnant odor. 'Ugh, I can’t wait till I am stronger. Wading through waste is not my idea of a fun adventure.’ I remove the manhole cover and reenter the sewers. The lighting in here is adequate, even this late in the evening. I am still able to see pretty far down each of the tunnels and I can read the markers on the wall. I proceed the way I went earlier. As I get near to the first place I encountered the giant rodents I notice that more of the vermin have showed up. Five of the hideous things are currently munching on their fallen brethren. They seem too preoccupied to notice me so I take the opportunity to launch a Fireball at them, taking them by surprise. The fireball directly hits the closest rodent to me causing its hair to combust and its flesh to melt to its bones. The rodent tries to scream out but it only makes it worse as fire floods its lungs as it inhales. Two other rodents are horribly burned and catch fire from the AOE explosion. They begin to thrash around trying to put themselves out. The two rodents furthest from me are unaffected by the fire and begin hissing at me. I draw my mace and dash towards them. As I close in on the last two unharmed rodents I thrust my left palm forward and spray them with my Fire Cone spell. Fire Cone can be continually cast so I spray them for 2 seconds before I end the spell. I turn back to the 2 burned rodents. One seems dead while the more fortunate one has half of its face severely burned and melted to the bone. It is roughly five feet from me and it rushes at me and launches itself towards my face. I smirk as easily side step and bring my mace smashing into it. The rodent is sent flying into the wall where it falls to the ground, dead. I sit where I am and I begin to laugh in glee. “Magic is so powerful. Before, those five rodents would have been a major threat to my health but with 2 spells I slaughtered them so easily. I am feeling slightly drained so I pull out my Status Slate to see how my mana is faring after my fight.
Zyrek
Age:10
Gender:Male
Mana: .73/1
Mana Regen: 4 hours
Cognizance:1.04
Strength:1.04
Vitality: 1.3/1.3
Constitution: 1.06/1.2
Resilience: 1.22
Dexterity: 1.1
Agility: 1.12
Soul Force: 1.03
Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma
“Hm, So I can probably cast four or five more spells safely. Though as my mana drops I am starting to feel mentally sluggish. Almost like I am tired and need to sleep. It would probably only take about an hour for my mana to refill. I hope to stay down here for a little while longer so I should probably be careful how I use my mana. My spells have great AOE so I should try to use my spell only on large clumps of rodents that would be difficult to kill with only my mace. Lets see, I can either open on large groups with Fireball if they are close together or I can bait them into charging me then spray the lot of them with my Fire Cone. I guess it all depends on their numbers and the situation. Though I can already see the value in developing my body and core. Magic is powerful, though if I were to run out of mana my combat efficiency would plummet. I think it would be best to be a strong fighter with Magic as a support. Then even if I run out of mana I can still fight or run away. I wonder if there is a way to increase Mana Regen. I’ll have to ask about that later.”
I rest for about ten minutes and regen about 4 percent of my mana. I collect the five slightly burned rat tails and then proceed down into the sewer. I come to the junction where I ambushed the rodents earlier in the day but nothing is there now. I proceed up to the corner and peer around. What I see shocks me. Roughly 20 meters down the tunnel there are around 30 giant rodents. One in particular stands out though. That monster is twice the size of the others. It probably weighs sixty pounds. That thing is the size of a large dog. The Alpha Rat as I am going to call it is surrounded my the other rodents. It is currently eating the corpses of the rodents I killed earlier. The other rats are huddled together waiting for something. I would probably guess they are waiting till the Alpha gets its fill first. I decide to wait a few more minutes to watch, develop a plan and regen a little more mana. ‘Every little bit helps right, hehe’. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. That is a huge horde of giant rats that are led by and even more massive Alpha Rat. That thing could easily tear my head off if it latched onto my throat. Its two large front teeth are easily visible from 20 meters away and they look more like daggers. If this group see’s me and charges now, I’ll probably die. The best chance for survival would be to leave now, quickly. The second best chance of survival is to kill most of them in a massive burst surprise attack, hopefully killing the Alpha at the same time, then cleaning up a few stragglers. While I could, and probably should, run away and definitely not engage this mess, that just doesn’t sit right with me. I want to see just what I can do. This is going to be the most dangerous fight I have been in yet. If I run from overgrown rats then what will I do in the future if I encounter something worse. Will I run then too? I can win this fight, I can feel it. I just have to be smart about my approach. I am not one to fight a losing fight out of stupidity, but I don’t want to run just because I am scared. I need to be brave. I need to view the situation tactically and use all I have learned so far to develop a plan for victory. Then, do it. 'Alright, I open up with 3 Fireballs. I’ll carefully aim the first one directly at the Alpha, then quickly follow up with another 2 into the horde of rats. I’ll wait to see what is left of them and decide my next course of action from there. Either run if my surprise attack fails or I’ll clean up stragglers. I should have enough mana left for another spell at least.
I hold my mace by the shaft with my left hand. I carefully use my right hand to aim my spell directly for the Alpha rat. I decide I’ll launch my next two spells onto the mid left and mid right part of the horde. Hopefully that will get most of them. I launch the first Fireball and quickly move onto the next target and then the next. The first Fireball directly hits the alpha in the left side as soon as I launch the last Fireball.The Alpha cries out in a loud screech. Then the second Fireball hits, quickly followed by the third. The rats didn’t even have time to comprehend what was happening before they were engulfed in a sea of flames. Cries fill the air as the fire spreads through the ranks of the rodents. A massive explosion of fire obscures my vision so I am unable to currently see the extent of the damage. All I know is that it sounds promising. As the fire clears up it is quickly replaced by billowing smoke from the burning rodents. All the rodents I can see seem to be on fire. Their thick shaggy fur burning. The ones that manage to survive run around in panic and manage to spread the fire onto the rodents who were missed by my Fireballs AOE. Smoke from the burning fur fills the air and blocks my vision. I hide behind the corner with my mace ready. The smoke dissipates after a few minutes. I take a peek around the corner and I am surprised by what I see. There are a few slightly burned rats running away down the tunnel, about 5 or 6. All the other giant rats appear to be dead. I let out a sigh, “Ah, that was easier than I thought...”. My monologue is cut short by a load and angry roar. Then I spot it, the Alpha. It survived. It’s entire body is covered in burns. Its hair is gone, its left eye is melted, bones are visible from here, but it is alive, and it’s angry. The massive thing is staring right at me. I can feel my skin tingling, warning bells going off in my head screaming at me to run. It moves. Less than a second later and it is already half of the way to me. I disappear from its view as I hide around the corner. I steel my nerves, now is not the time to fall apart. Focus or die. I ready my Mace. The next instant the massive alpha rat appears from around the corner and lands 6 feet from me where it quickly turns and faces me. This thing is huge. It stands about 2 and a half feet tall, roughly 5 feet long, not including its massive tail. It is probably closer to 80 pounds now that i can see it up close. Its two large front teeth are baring at me and blood is pouring from its mouth. Steam is coming from its flesh and no hair remains on the massive thing. It launches at me and I immediately bring up my mace to defend. Its just too quick for me. The Alpha slams into me, it feels like it cracked a few of my ribs. It opens is huge maw and snaps directly for my throat. I anticipated that, these wild animals always seem to go for the throat. I manage to barely get the shaft of my Mace into its mouth as I use all my strength to keep those teeth away. This thing is standing on its hind legs now and it used its front legs and claws to scratch at me. The sharp nails furiously slash and rip into my leather armor quickly tearing into it. ‘My armor wont last long’. I quickly bring up my right knee and smash it into the Alpha’s ribs. It screeches at me but keeps pushing its teeth closer and closer to my throat. I knee the thing again and again. Finally, on the fourth knee I hear a snap as my knee breaks a few of the Alpha’s ribs. The Alpha tenses up and lessens up on me. I quickly take advantage and push as hard as I can and topple it onto its back. I bring the mace down directly onto its chest. I hear more of its ribs breaking. The sounds is terrible but it only make me happier. The Alpha quickly rolls onto its feet and turn back at me. As it comes to face me it is met with my mace directly smash into the side of its head, dazing it and giving my the chance to hit it again. I raise the mace up high and use every last ounce of strength I have to bring the mace down, crushing its skull. “Finally, its dead. Tough bastard.” I fall on my butt and just sit there exhausted. My leather cuirass is in ruined. Blood is leaking out of long cuts in my chest. My arms are heavy from over exertion. “I can’t stay here long. If more show up I won’t be able to deal with them. I use my dagger to collect the Alpha’s tail. I move towards the burnt remains of the other rats and collect their tails too. 23 more tails go into my collection. Thats 29 tails from this trip, alpha included. I quickly trace my steps with haste and leave the sewers. I make it to the surface, replace the manhole cover and I collapse onto my back and just lay there. My heart is racing, my skin is sticky with sweat and my breathing is labored. The fight with the Alpha rat lasted about 5 seconds, but those 5 seconds took everything out of me. “Ill definitely need to improve my constitution. I get tired too fast. Just a short fight where I needed to exert all my strength and push myself has left me completely exhausted. If I had to fight an extended battle I would be dead. No doubt about that. I should check my Status Slate to see how everything looks”.
Zyrek
Age:10
Gender:Male
Mana: .35/1
Mana Regen: 4 hours
Cognizance:1.04
Strength:1.04
Vitality: .63/1.3
Constitution: .42/1.2
Resilience: 1.22
Dexterity: 1.1
Agility: 1.12
Soul Force: 1.03
Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma
“Shit, I know these claw marks hurt like hell but this says I am half dead. I definitely have a few broke ribs from that Alpha’s tackle. I have a third of my energy left it seems, and a third of my mana. I feel like I was really lucky there. Even with my all of the damage I initially did to that thing it still survived and nearly ripped my head off. I guess I can attribute my weakness to my age and the fact that I just developed my core. I think I need to focus on atleast doubling or tripling my physical stats before I delve into expanding my mana capacity. That thing weighed less than I do but it was pure muscle. I am toned but more of my weight comes from my height. I am tall for my age at 5‘11“ but, I have only been able to develop muscle through exercise. So my actual strength and other physical stats are actually pretty pathetic. Aaaahhhhhhh, atleast I survived to understand how puny I am. Now that I know, I can work on getting stronger. I need to head back and get these wounds healed.”
It is well into the night at this point so the streets and uncrowded so I manage to make it back to the Adventurer’s Guild quickly.