Would you like to choose a new ability?
Luriel answered with definite YES and a new large window opened before her. It contained four abilities. In Luriel’s beloved Aurunia, every intelligent race had one race trait and one race ability. As a human, her trait was chaos because there was nothing that all humans had in common. One could say many things about humanity, but as a race, they were spread to all parts of the scale of all possible traits. That was why she thought that chaos best characterize them.
As for race ability, there was no natural one. She didn’t want to give each human a special ability because there was already Talent. So Luriel gave them a boon from System. It increased all their abilities and class choices by one.
She was overjoyed with her past decision, as it allowed her to reap the benefits now.
Choose one of the following abilities:
Manaspear
Description: This potent ability allows caster to shape and project concentrated mana into a form of lance. Albeit it has a long casting time compared to the basic Manashot, it is compensated by its great power and capability to pierce through defenses.
Manawall
Description: This is a simple protective ability, designed to create a translucent barrier of mana capable of shielding user from magical and physical threats alike. Its flexible nature allows caster to adjust its size, shape and rotation. It is versatile ability whose use depends solely on the casters creativity.
Manasense
Description: This basic ability allows user to passively detect the flow of magical energies in their vicinity. Its effective range and strength depend on the user’s concentration.
Levitation
Description: This ability allows user by touch to imbue levitation feature into the living creature or an object. All control stays in the hands of the caster, as well as the cost of mana that is proportional to the distance, size, weight and resistance of affected.
Just as she expected, deciding wasn’t easy. Each of the offered abilities looked useful in many situations. She started from the first one. Manaspear. She already had Manashot that didn’t lack in the strength department. But. If she chose a spear, she might be able to kill cyclops. No, she could definitely kill him. Maybe even in one shot if she hit the eye. Tho the biggest disadvantage would be the casting time. It might take her one or more minutes. She would need help with the distraction and the only person capable of that, at least safely, was Zirilion. Unfortunately, he was the only person she couldn’t ask for help. To kill cyclops would be an achievement, but one he shouldn’t have.
Next was Manawall. She could already imagine many ways to utilize it. Like creating a tower from which she could freely shoot rats. Definitely a strong contestant.
Third ability, Manasense, was one she sorely lacked. It would improve her casting speed and allowed her to level up her abilities. She absolutely needed it. As she realized this, she could already feel that she had decided. Levitation would be useful, especially in the home of a giant, but not necessary. None of the others were necessary. Luriel sighed ruefully because of all that missed potential. She could only hope for her next choices to be as good as these.
When she picked the third ability, the change happened instantly. Parched sensation permeated her body. She could almost feel dry desert wind coursing through her veins instead of blood. Luriel touched her neck as she realized her lack of mana. How much she couldn’t tell, but it wouldn’t surprise her if she wouldn’t be able to cast even a single Manashot.
Fuck. I’m so thirsty.
Fortunately, there was a simple solution. She opened her status and added all free points into the Mystic.
Status
Name: Luriel
Race: Human
Level: 2
Class: Mystic Fighter
Talent: none
Core stage: none
Attributes
Strength: 3
Agility: 4
Mind: 11
Vitality: 3
Endurance: 3
Mystic: 6
Charm: 3
Perception: 5
Charisma: 2
Free attribute points: 0
Armor: 3
Abilities
Manasense lvl 1
Manashot lvl 1
Meditation lvl 1
Titles
Main Administrator
Her feelings of emptiness and dryness weakened considerably. She was glad for that because she couldn’t imagine having to deal with it while meditating. Her mana pool should be half filled now. She could feel it flow inside her. It would be good to test it, but she didn’t want to waste mana by shooting at the wall or the ceiling. She already had a big enough piece of light crystal and too many smaller ones.
No more delaying.
Luriel dropped on all four. She kept the wand in one hand while the crystal in the other and crawled inside the hole. Her primitive flashlight illuminated only about two meters around but also shined into her eyes. She had to keep it in front of her to not get partially blinded.
The tunnel was smooth, with no gravel that would scrape her hands and knees. But her robe turned out to be an absolutely worst idea for crawling adventures. At least her current design. Because it didn’t hug her legs as pants would, she had to move it herself. She could do at most two steps. If something started to chase her, she would be dead.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
As she continued crawling, her heart rate steadily increased. The eerie silence was deafening. She felt like something will happen. It was like waiting for a jumpscare in a horror game. It had to happen. You just didn’t know when. The limited range of visibility only worsened her paranoia.
This was a bad idea, Luriel thought as she came to the first crossroads.
If she meets a rat, she won’t be able to cast fast enough to kill it. She should have picked Manawall. Luriel pulled two tiny shining stones from the pocket where she kept her potions and placed them near the wall. One to the tunnel she came from and the other to the path she has chosen.
In spite of her negative thoughts, she continued crawling, never stopping for more than a few seconds. Her nerves were so tensed that when she heard distant scratching of claws she felt relief.
Luriel started casting. It was very different compared to her previous attempts. Now all that mental gymnastic had a clear purpose. She felt her mana moving exactly as she ordered it. It flew to her hand and into the wand. She also could feel a slight pull from the weapon itself. Must have been the enchantment.
Her mana fed the ability. The blue ball quickly grew, even faster than it should, based on her knowledge. And the best part was that after reaching its full size, Luriel could hold it back from shooting. That sudden feeling of power and control drove away all her fear and anxiety. She grinned at the darkness and excitedly awaited the incoming threat.
The sound grew closer. At one point, the rat had finally noticed her and started running toward her. Regardless, Luriel still waited. She wasn’t afraid that she would miss the rodent. Tunnel wasn’t that wide. But she might not kill it immediately and that would be dangerous.
It took a rat a few seconds to reach her light. Luriel almost fired instantly. That would be a grave mistake, because her aim was slightly off. She quickly corrected it and finally released the ability.
It traveled the short distance almost instantly and hit a rushing monster in the middle of the head. Its dark eyes lost its shine, and it fell to the ground, sliding the rest of the way until it reached her knees.
You have killed Rat level 1
Your contribution is 100%
You have earned Trivial experience points
Because she was now level 2, her gain of experience from rats decreased. Trivial was the most common amount anyone outside Tutorial received. It meant that she got less than 1% of experiences required for the next level. She would need to kill more than a hundred rats to get to level three. Not that she will stay there for so long.
Minor in one of the previous messages meant from 1 to 10% and Mild from 11 to 20%. She created thirteen of these words and enjoyed their usage later when rewarding her characters. Each new exceptional achievement awarded a new word.
Luriel awoke from her daydream when blood from a fresh corpse drenched her robe. She backed away and realized, that she will have to get past the rat if she wanted to continue that way. Reluctantly, she pushed it aside while more blood soaked her clothes and crawled through the gap.
As she continued her little adventure, she encountered more rats. The feeling of dryness grew stronger with every Manashot she fired. But she didn’t dare to Meditate and rather pushed thorough that feeling. Rats also meant more blood and at some point, she stopped bothering to avoid it.
Luriel marked more crossroads and even found two dead ends, where she marked them with two stones. In the middle of one, she realized it might be a problem if Ziri found her trail, so she will have to move through there again to collect them. Sooner rather than later.
At some point, Luriel started to be afraid that she got lost. She didn’t find any of her stones yet, but that was just a matter of time. Then, at the next crossroad, she discovered something new. Something she didn’t know about. To her left, the path changed from another copy pasted tunnel to a stairway.
That definitely didn’t occur in her story. Or more like Zirilion didn’t come across anything similar. Luriel curiously looked up. The stairway seemed to continue even farther than her light illuminated. She didn’t realize that there were things she could discover in her own story.
I wonder where it leads? Somewhere out of reach? Or maybe there is a whole area I don’t know about?
Her excitement grew and even overshadowed her thirst for mana as she imagined all the possibilities. It was decided. She took the stairway path. Its ceiling was still too low for normal walking, so she had to climb. It took her almost half an hour to get to the top. She must have got really high above the ground level. The stairway led into a single tunnel ending in light. Luriel hurriedly moved forward. The place already felt small, claustrophobic, so she felt huge relief to get out.
The light momentarily blinded her. When her eyes adapted, she realized she was standing on one huge shelf worthy of a giant. There were several clay jars bigger than her spread evenly and after she went in between two, a unique look appeared to her.
The shelf she stood on was located high above all other shelves and closets in the kitchen. At the end of the room she saw an enormous cauldron hanged by rope on a metal arm. Under it burned vast pile of wood still heating already boiling water. A series of dry herbs hanged from another metal frame at the opposite side from Luriel. There was also a large door-less wardrobe with many shelves full of similar clay pots she had on hers. At last somewhere below her was placed a small giant table with only two chairs and a knife. Time for cooking was getting closer.
Down on the floor, many small packs of rats roamed around. It looked chaotic even to her. And when she turned to the entrance, her heart started beating faster. She saw a group of seven people fighting two packs at once, with a third getting closer. The group comprised mostly experienced fighters. Based on System granted armor, she could distinguish their classes. Those with lighter brown leather armor with metal chest plate and elbow and knees protections were Strong Fighters. They fought in front, keeping enemies away from two ranged companions. One was a human Mystic Fighter like Luriel, who used Flamecaster Rod and the other was a satyr Agile Fighter with a small bow and thick quiver now half empty. She had a much darker colored leather armor similar in design to Strong Fighters but with no metal.
Zirilion, being the second Agile Fighter in the group, stood out. He fought in close combat with a dagger, running around helping his teammates by stabbing rats in legs or sides. If rodents turned at him, he always backed away and rats got ended by their original opponent. If not, he did more serious injuries that critters eventually succumb to. This way, they easily defeated three more packs that stumbled upon them before retreating outside.
Luriel was thrilled that she has found such great seat for the show. And she came even sooner than expected. Now she had some time before they returned so she could look around. Well, there wasn’t much to be found except those clay pots. Luriel was sure that some of them hide items inside. However, before she will try to shoot holes in them, she had to replenish her reserves.
Luriel sat behind one of the farther pots. She hoped to remain hidden from any stray rat that might come out of the hole. She felt thirsty. Almost as much as when she got Manasense. And it will get worse as her pool grew. She wasn’t looking forward to it. However, that was a concern for her future self. Now was time to drink, or rather breathe. She almost smelled the abundant mana in the air. She deeply breathed in. Her lungs expanded and worked overtime to process all the oxygen and mana. She could feel the energy joining her pool. But it was not enough. It felt like sprinkling desert. The drops were just too little. She needed more, a lot more. She was so thirsty. After a brief pause, she slowly breathed out. It was hard. Luriel had to suppress her urge to just breathe faster and destroy the steadiness.
Every breath was a fight. The thirst was stronger than normally. It could be compared to showing someone really thirsty lake full of water. Luriel controlled herself as best she could, mostly because she knew the lake was fake. Only by breathing steadily could she absorb more mana. And the longer she kept the streak, the better gains she had as the effectiveness grew.
Slowly, the thirst receded until completely disappearing. With enough drops, even the desert could become green.
Luriel didn’t watch the time, but when she finally felt full, her protagonist with his group was already engaged in another fight. She smiled and sat more comfortably while leaning her back against the clay. Opening pots will have to wait. It was story time!