CHAPTER 14: CLOSING YOUR EYES
You have awakened a new innate ability!
Sense Magic
With great Power comes great Responsibility
Sense Magic
"The greatest loss of growing up is the loss of wonder, observing all that surrounds us"
You have seen the wonders of the material world and grown used to them. Jaded from everyday observation, they offer nothing new.
However, your eyes have now been opened to look beyond the veil, to behold the majesty that are the forces underpinning our reality.
Whether this is beauty to behold, power to grasp or resources to conquer ... that is for you to decide.
You have a sense for magic energies, able to detect them directly, rather than just through the effects they cause.
Arcanis got distracted by the latest addition to his character sheet, but he was barely done reading it when the storm began. Psychedelic colors flashed over everything, the water he was lying in shifted temperatures from freezing to boiling and back, up became down, down became up and he somehow managed to drag himself out of the water before he drowned in the confusion. Bells rang in his ears and a storm washed over him, the air tasting like a lush forest. And red. Panicked, he closed his eyes, stuck fingers into his ears and curled together into a ball ... but nothing worked, the storm of sensory signals continued unabatedly, and a strong headache formed.
With a major effort, Arcanis forced his thoughts back into order. Dammit, must be a completely new sense! Over his lifes, the reincarnator had experienced quite a few additional senses mankind was not meant to have. It never was fun, but usually a lot more manageable, if he had had a similar sense previously. No such luck this time.
Alright, first ste- A cheese-flavored - Gouda - cloud of electric energy passed through him, interrupting his focus and intensifying the pounding in his head. First step to mastering a new sense: Figure out how to turn it off. He stood up, kept his eyes closed and ensured his ears remained plugged, while weathering the storm of signals.
It felt like standing in a tropical rainstorm, while being burned, frozen, electrocuted and stabbed at the same time. He could feel a stormfront approaching, and a sun burning brightly in the distance. A vibration ran through him, starting at the feet and moving up from there. Then another. And another. Like a heartbeat, just on a scale unimaginable.
Signal by signal, Arcanis focused on it, then discarded it as not relevant. Signal by signal, he focused on how it was not actually something he cared to "see". And as time continued, the perceived madness lessened - colors grew less intense, the burning stopped, the smells faded away and finally, after who knew how long a time, the last breeze faded and he stood undisturbed.
It was over.
Arcanis opened his eyes again and unplugged his ears, inspecting his surroundings. His earlier observations had been close enough to reality: Both the bottom of the crystal clear lake as well as the roof part of the cavern sported plenty of glowing crystal, bathing the entire cavern into a colorful pattern of colors. In opposite to his previous impression, only three separate colors existed - green, blue and red - and the combined result was weird, to say the least. But without any of the movement and with a stable sense of balance, the result was quite enchanting, rather than migraine inducing.
Underneath that light, the cavern floor was unexpected, but not terribly so, after his previous experiences: Around the small lake, a zone of free, green grass, almost a lawn, ensured a clear view. The outer border - at least close by, where Arcanis could see - was marked at a consistent interval with a stone covered in runes. Outside that border, a thick forest made of some unknown leaved trees covered everything. While he did not recognize what kind of trees made up that forest, it still left an oddly familiar feeling with the aspiring wizard ... as if he should recognize them.
Still pondering over that feeling he turned back to the lake, sat down at its shore and tested the water with his hand. Warm. Looking around, he neither saw nor felt any threat, any monster and his intuition too agreed, that there was no immediate danger. Would have been ironic to finally unlock something like that and get killed while distracted by the new input.
Curious, he checked his status and recalled the information on the innate ability he just gained:
Sense Magic
"The greatest loss of growing up is the loss of wonder, observing all that surrounds us"
You have seen the wonders of the material world and grown used to them. Jaded from everyday observation, they offer nothing new.
However, your eyes have now been opened to look beyond the veil, to behold the majesty that are the forces underpinning our reality.
Whether this is beauty to behold, power to grasp or resources to conquer ... that is for you to decide.
You have a sense for magic energies, able to detect them directly, rather than just through the effects they cause.
That is probably going to be a critically important ability for any kind of magic research. I kind of doubt they make a habit of throwing students into dungeons to acquire it usually, though. Filing this as one of the questions for his magic mentor if - when! - he finally made it back to the city, he leaned back and relaxed on the grass, enjoying the gentle breeze. I wonder just which of the odd sensations these last days were actually mundane, and which were part of this ability growing...
Come to think of it, I never took a look at my other abilities in the character sheet! Swiftly, Arcanis went through the menu and expanded the first one:
Gift of Magic
"Great Gifts mean nothing without the effort and determination to reach for them."
Whether by some act of the gods, chance, great heresy or a hideously expensive potion, you have unlocked the innate gift that grants you access to magic.
What you do with this gift is up to you however. Will you stand for the downtrodden? Will you leave behind your mortal shell, aiming for transcendence? Will you subjugate all that stands before you? Will you die in the gutters, before your tale truly begins?
This gift is but a potential. Forge your own path with it.
* Unlocks access to any magical class
* Grants a beginner combat spell upon coming of age.
* Unguided but inspired - as long you haven't yet formally mastered a spell-casting class you may experience an Inspiration, an event that happens under just the right circumstances, unlocking a suitable beginner magic spell.
* You have a minimum Spell Capacity of three magic spells, irrespective of whether attributes or spells would allow that many.
Lets hope this dungeon here does not qualify as gutters, shall we? Reading through it, there were not really any surprises here, but ... That reminds me, I never grabbed a third spell, did I? Checking his Status, he indeed found an empty slot in his spell list. Something to look up. If I remember that right, those spell-books dropped in this dungeon and were supposed to be quite common. Maybe if I finally find some monster to kill!
"I didn't really just raise that flag, did I?"
Magic Researcher
"Talk to my apprentice, I am busy"
Magic has always drawn you like moths to a light. However, what truly fascinates you are not the large fireballs or meteor storms. Oh, they too hold your attention, but it is the way they are put together, the way so many Components come together to build a spectacular whole that is your true passion.
Undetermined Boni. Like you would want a spoiler! Go ahead and research them yourself.
Yay. He looked at the Boni section with annoyance. "I must admit, that some spoiler would be quite acceptable after all ..."
Alas, no response from the System was forthcoming.
Moving on
Linguist
"How would I unlock the mysteries of this universe, if I did not speak their languages?"
You have a natural ability to master languages. Whether written or spoken, none can long hide their secrets from you.
You find it easier to learn new languages.
Yay again! "It would be kind of nice if the descriptions would be more useful than the title of the ability itself!"
Arcanis stretched a little but remained lying on the grass, enjoying the moment, when a loud growl disrupted the peace. Jumping up, he materialized the shortsword from his inventory and scanned the tree-line ... when the growl repeated. With some embarrassment he realized that had been his stomach reminding him of his solemn duty to not starve.
Mindful of his twice-broken arm, the aspiring wizard stored the sword back in the inventory and withdrew the last portion of his rations from it. Meal prep - while usually quite simple - was a chore, handicapped as he was, but the travel rations were packed for simple consumption, so that was doable.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Now if only there was something he could do about the taste ...
* * *
A shudder went down an old woman's back. She did not interrupt stirring her pot, but the left hand twitched, as if it wanted to reach for the big spoon.
"You just come back, young apprentice, you just come back ..."
* * *
Fresh out of food, Arcanis knew he was on a timer. Unless he was able to find some food in this dungeon - uncertain, it had not come up and his own faint recollections about dungeons from previous lifes was inconclusive - the young adventurer had about three days before his performance would start lagging and about five days until weakening to the point of uselessness. Unless stats changed things, of course, but more often than not they would not substantially change the calculation.
More questions to clarify later on I suppose. A good time to start a list, lest I forget. Arcanis withdrew his writing tools from the inventory and started writing.
* Can food be found in dungeons?
* How does starvation work, and how do skills and attributes factor in?
Come to think of it, might need to ask about spatial storage and how that works.
* Can food be found in dungeons?
* How does starvation work, and how do skills and attributes factor in?
* Spatial Storage - is that a thing?
One more thing to do before heading out. Mustering will and focus, he willed back the signals he suppressed before. As if opening the floodgates, the storm was back once again, building migraine and all. Arcanis moved to the closest rune-covered stone marking the border between grass and forest, then closed his eyes, focusing just on the signals his new sense tried to convey. There was a weird music playing, a static running all over him, the crystals on the roof of the cavern smelled red. Focus, mind! Kneeling down he concentrated on just the stone in front of him, reducing the sensory "noise" and removing many of the nausea-inducing misuses of his other senses.
The stone smelled green.
This is not green! Concentrating longer, he rejected other suggestions his mind offered, until finally it registered as something new, something distinct. Finally. Sighing in relief Arcanis dropped his focus ... and was immediately engulfed in a storm of sounds, colors and smells that made little sense. Capitulating for now, he shut down his new sense as he had the last time - a lot easier with even a little practice - and set out into the forest.
* * *
The forest was odd, compared to what one would expect from a regular forest: Instead of the shrubbery being on the outside and within it being fairly clear to travel, the entire forest was seeded with smaller plants, bushes ... even flowers. All those glowing crystals probably have something to do with it. Smaller versions of the crystals hanging from the roof were also placed throughout the forest, and wherever they were found, so were plants ... especially around the green crystals. He'd tried picking up one of those crystals and that worked just fine ... but it immediately stopped glowing and crumbled soon after. Trying to inspect it with his new sense also failed miserably, the utter sensory overload prevented any meaningful results.
About half an hour into his trip, Arcanis stopped, something feeling off. He looked around, inspecting his surroundings, but everything seemed in order, the surrounding bushes and trees exactly as all the others. Then why are the hairs in your neck standing up and telling you to run? He retrieved his sword from inventory - the staff being impractical with a broken arm - and turned around his own axis, searching everywhere for whatever was messing with him.
Thanks to that caution, the young adventurer barely managed to see movement in his peripheral vision and dodged to the side as a shadow rushed at him from a tree. Still ... he did not manage to avoid the entire attack and felt the claws ripping at his left right arm. The major scratch hurt ... but it was nothing compared to the piercing pain of his left arm as he shook around the double-broken limb.
Focus!
Facing his assailant, it turned out to be a feline monster, red-furred about the size of a small dog. Is this a cat dungeon?! Hissing angrily at him, it circled to his left, before charging right in, trying to hit him on his weakened side.
Instincts took over and he brought his sword over in time, skewering the beast before it managed to reach him.
You have raised the skill: Dodge to level 19
+1 Agility, +5% Speed for the purpose of evading attacks
You have raised the skill: Pain Tolerance to level 7
+1 Constitution, -5% perceived pain
"Ok, that was easier than the last encounters." Relieved that this was over, he stored the sword back in his inventory, and used Healing Touch to fix up the scratches suffered. No such spell for my shirt, alas.
Checking out the monster, Arcanis saw that the body remained - for now, if this would go the same way as in his previous encounters - and inspected it in further detail. There was no loot to be found, but ... what if it could be taken apart and parts from the body - meat, notably, given his situation - be used?
Taking the knife from his inventory, the young adventurer started taking apart the body of the beast. Not exactly a tool designed for this, his work progressed clumsily, but turned out to be decently successful, if very, very slow, seeing as how he had to do it with only one hand. The pelt was ruined, as were most of the claws, but some meat was successfully salvaged.
He was barely done when the remains liquefied, leaving behind the pieces of meat. So far so good, so I actually can salvage monster parts. Whether that meat is usable or not remains to be seen, I suppose.
You have unlocked the skill: Butchering!
Butchering (Level: 1) [Nature]
"Fresh Meat!"
The art of cutting up victims who cannot defend themselves.
Go, you!
Well, at least you're not wasting the efforts of your teammates.
+2 Dexterity, Improved quality of result
A surge of pain reminded Arcanis of his broken left arm, which had gone un-addressed for way too long. In the faint hope that it would do the trick, he tried a couple of "Healing Touch", but it was to no avail - the "Tortured" status effect being still active. "I wonder how long that will last?" or do I need a special healer to get rid of it? That being said and thought, while it might not be possible to unbreak the arm, it could at least be fixed, so that sudden jarring movements would no longer aggravate the injury or cause pain.
For example during the next piece of combat which inevitably would happen at some point. And the next bout might not be against a glorified pet!
A quick search yielded three decently straight sticks of suitable length. Lacking any kind of bandage or rope to bind the sticks to his arm with, the remaining sleeves of his shirt had to serve instead. Cutting them up into improvised bandages with but a single hand was once again a painful chore, but in the end, he managed to pull off an actual cast that would likely hold at least against moderate use. Apparently, the System also agreed with the young adventurer's efforts:
You have raised the skill: First Aid to level 2
+1 Dexterity, Increased Quality of result
You have raised the skill: First Aid to level 3
+1 Dexterity, Increased Quality of result
You have raised the skill: First Aid to level 4
+1 Dexterity, Increased Quality of result
After quenching his thirst using the bucket of well-water in his inventory, Arcanis resumed his exploration tour, where he was attacked again, this time by a trio of red-furred feline rogues, and while their numbers meant he had to take a few more scratches before finishing off the last of them, it was not any more of a danger, his capped Constitution score giving him plenty of health and resistance, vastly outclassing the damage potential of a set of decently small feline predators. On the upside, the battle and subsequent butchering netted two more levels of Butchering and a tenth rank in Swords, adding another maneuver skill to his repertoire.
You have unlocked the skill: Swords: Wall of Blades!
Swords: Wall of Blades (Level: 1) [Martial]
"Oh, you meant to HIT me!"
Other people read books, you read the momentum of the battlefield.
While that does explain the sorry state of your education, it does come in handy in some specific situations.
Redirect the momentum of enemy attacks away from you, while blocking the movement of others.
+1 Strength, +1 Constitution, +1 Dexterity, +5% Maneuver Strength
"Not exactly what I used against the kittens, but ... sounds good anyway." Will need to figure out how to use it as well - not that I actually want to keep up the blade. Not sure how I want to feel about the system pushing me back into swordplay ...
"On the other hand ..." Arcanis checked out the last message ".. that one is indisputably useful."
You have unlocked the skill: Dismantle!
Dismantle (Level: 1) [Nature]
"Others call it trash. I call it 'Resource'"
Bums dig through trash, you dig through animal and monster entrails.
Guess who smells better.
Oh well, but at least you probably earn a bit more for all that extra risk and short life expectation.
You have gained more experience at dismantling your kills and taking possibly valuable trophies.
Or you are just lucky, who knows?
+1 Dexterity, +1 Luck, Improved quality of result
Deciding to return back to the lake he woke up in - the only source of fresh water so far - the aspiring wizard headed off once again. Along the way he encountered a yellow tree bearing a few, small, round, red fruit. The tree was small enough to allow Arcanis to gather them without too much trouble, and their taste proved decent when he tried out one of them - a bit on the sour side for him, but ok enough to bear it. Checking his status, he also found they did not actually poison him in any visible way, so they should do as a source of food, in case the meat did not turn out well.
With his inventory full, he put the claws he managed to salvage from the small monsters' bodies into one of the pockets on the side of his leather armor and put the more squishable fruits into the inventory. Logistics covered and immediate starvation averted, Arcanis moved on, whistling a happy tune.
* * *
"Ok, Arcanis" the young man placed his hands on his hips, looking into the forest ahead of him. "It's time you admit it" he turned around, inspecting the various tries and bushes he was surrounded with. "You have absolutely no idea where you are!"
He looked around and all he could see were trees, bushes and some crystals. A few far distant shadows were moving close to the roof, as if birds were flying up there. Otherwise ... nothing, only shrubbery.
Enabling his magic sense once again, his perception expanded, almost like an invisible overlay over the current scene. No! Not vision ... something new instead. The crystals in the ceiling looked like Edam cheese and smelled like red- focus! Concentrating, Arcanis narrowed his focus on his immediate surroundings and - after closing his eyes - one ... 'presence' drew his mental perception: Slightly ahead of him, near ground level, there was a nexus of signals ... of magic energy, if he interpreted thing correctly.
Passing through the bushes between himself and the locus, Arcanis found another stone, set in the ground and covered in runes. His new sense 'tingled', for lack of a better word, as he drew closer, and - as his hands touched the stone - he felt the energy of the stone pulse along the runes covering it. He traced them with his fingers, not eliciting a response, but as he followed a line to the other side of the stone, his hand felt as if it dipped into water. Retracting his hand undid the feeling, but repeating the movement would restore the odd sensation. Weird, so touching whatever source of magic I want to inspect gives me more detail, but unless I know what I am dealing with, that level of detail is not much help... "But what's with that 'watery' feeling?"
The aspiring wizard stood up and circled around the stone, magic sense enabled ... and sure enough, passing to the other side caused that same sensation, only across the entire body. However, it only happened as he passed the stone, rather than being a permanent feeling. "More like passing through a membrane, rather than stepping into water." To test it out more, Arcanis circled around the stone for a few cycles, repeating the identical experience each time.
After a few minutes of playing around with this - and fighting distractions on his new sense - he finally stopped to think. The young man noticed the headache slowly creeping back in and regretfully disabled the magic sense once again. Looks like I can hold it longer now, but still have far to go. "Anyway, focus buddy!" he slapped himself on the cheeks to interrupt the mental rambling. "Looks like this might be some kind of barrier. It's not exactly preventing me from passing through, so it does not block physical matter." He started walking up and down, scratching his chin in thought. Magic? Let's see "Firebolt" He cast his simple fire attack spell against the (presumed) barrier and indeed it struck the barrier and dispersed.
"So, it will stop magic, but ... that makes little sense!" The runed stone itself was not protected - the barrier passed straight though it - so any intelligent being would be able to attack it instead. And magic requires intelligence after all. Now does it? Arcanis stopped and looked at the stone in disgruntlement. "What are you really intended to block?"
A deep, rumbling growl was his only answer ... and warning.