Thysse sat in a chair he had grown of white oak and at a table of the same. The surfaces were not exactly smooth as they were covered in bark and had the occasional branch with leaves coming out of them still growing, but it was so much better than nothing. Thysse was using the new table to attempt to make a new health potion.
He kept glancing at the party tab in his menu. Brandon had not gotten in contact with them for over 12 hours and he was not listed normally in the menu. Thysse had seen when Brandon’s health had gone to 2 remaining hit points before suddenly jumping to 100% full. Not long after, his health bar had been hidden, which they had never seen before.
Thysse scribbled the new measurements he had and tossed the failed potion still steaming into the pile in the corner. It was hard for him to focus while he was so distracted. He had to worry about the camp, he had to worry about the new arrivals, he had to worry about what the heck it meant [Ascension in Progress] on Brandon’s status screen.
In the absence of Brandon, Mia and Thysse had taken over the leadership of the party and they often found themselves disagreeing. Thysse liked Mia well enough, but she could be absolutely infuriating when she thought she was right about something. She did have better leadership in combat so he had acquiesced that position to her. In a similar vein he had been put in charge of all of the new people in their camp.
It had not even been that long but he was exhausted of the new people in the camp. A few had been useful. They were able to hunt and gather materials for his potion making and Dylan’s shoes and leather armors. Dylan’s profession was technically a cobbler and focused on shoes, but he had gained so many leatherworking skills he put them to use protecting himself and his friends.
Thysse poured his mana into the cauldron, helping the sweet basil infuse with the strawberry juice and the blood of a snapping tree. The snapping tree was a living tree they had discovered that was an ambush predator in disguise. It had eaten one of the new recruits before anyone heard his screams. The second one had lost an arm to it and it had not grown back on his level up.
Thysse added in a pinch of powdered mana crystal and an infusion of Thundeer horn he had made by grinding down the horns and placing them in hot water until the color had changed to blue and the liquid sparked.
According to his math this combination should work to make a more potent healing potion. The problem was, he wasn’t sure about the math. It was not as simple as mixing a recipe but not as complicated as advanced chemistry yet. He figured that it would get there and the bigger difference was he had no one to teach him. Chemistry had hundreds of years of research and history. Alchemy was limited to the knowledge Jade and he had gained through the trials and the couple of books they had read.
If only the materials here had been in these books. Thysse had been trying to figure out what each material did through experimentation since he became an alchemist. Jade had helped him but their professions were not exactly the same.
Thysse began to slowly heat up the mixture more as he combined the new materials through stirring and pushing his mana into it. He was so focused he didn’t hear anything or see anything outside of the cauldron. His vision had faded to black all around the cauldron but he did not notice at all, such was his focus.
Bang! Thysses’ new door swung open and hit the tree that their home was grown around with a large sound that broke him out of his concentration. The mana went haywire and the potion bubbled and burst out of the pot. He barely had time to dodge the stream of liquid while cursing whoever opened the door.
“S-sorry boss. Ya weren’t answerin’ and you said tell ya immediately if we found a dangerous monster. Apparently there was a monster in the bear cave. They said it was a naked man a’sleepin’ with a sword, and if anyone went in he started floating. They say his mana pressure kept anyone from gettin’ close. Was hoping you and your friends could take a look boss.”
“The fuck? What?” Thysse was still trying to process what he said panting and on the floor, a large patch of steaming ground between his legs where what would have been a potion splashed.
***
Mia sat upon the top of the vine structure they called home and kept watch. She saw some of their scouts running back looking scared. She knew they would be reporting the situation to Thysse and if it was important she’d hear about it.
Instead of watching the people running back like kicked puppies, she focused her gaze around the edges of the clearing, looking for what they could be running from. It was times like these she wished they didn’t have to split up to take care of things.
Jade and Dylan were sent out to go and collect some food and materials. Brandon was out of commission for now, but he wasn’t dead. The party leader was still him so he couldn’t be dead. In his absence and with the added burden of taking care of more people, they needed to leave the tedious work to the two not in charge.
Mia kept looking for whatever had disturbed the scouts while she pulled out her phone. She texted the groupchat to ask for Jade and Dylan to return then quickly began searching the tree line again. She saw many creatures she recognized, from the thunder deer to the magma salamander that glowed in the distance. There was even a set of the four armed monkeys made of branch and leaf, [Treaky].
New monsters had moved in and replaced many of the lower leveled ones, as they hunted, the lower level monsters were rapidly decreasing, but even still many of the new idiots couldn’t kill a thunder deer alone. It was getting difficult to take care of them, and she suspected they would be leaving on longer excursions once Brandon was back. They needed more difficult monsters to fight than what was now available here.
There were 3 useful members of the new group as far as combat went. A young woman who was an excellent archer named Anabelle, an old veteran who came in with guns with lots of ammo, and a martial artist of some sort. She thought the martial artist was practicing Muay Thai but he had lots of variation she had never seen so maybe it was mixed martial arts. The veteran had a few thousand rounds left and had already gotten a profession before joining. He was a gunman and gunsmith. He had a few recipes for different gunpowder and weapons, and he could make the gunpowder but he needed material for bullet casings and bullets he didn’t have yet. He had kept as many casings as he could and thought he’d be able to make more ammo soon.
None of them were as strong as their party yet but they were each level 8 in their class. After the bonus experience from Brandon’s fight, they were all now level 11. Mia had gained an ancient rarity skill called [Gem Spear]. The spell was quite interesting and consumed a gem on casting. She had used the knowledge of it to create a spell she called gem arrow which did the same thing but much smaller and didn’t consume a gem. The full spear was an 8 foot long spear of magical energy that formed into a crystalline structure the color of the gem used. It did even more damage than Brandon’s Arc Slash did as far as she knew.
The arrows were similar to her mana bolts but cost more mana. They were smaller, straight bolts of energy that had more penetrating power and dealt more damage than the bolts but also cost more as well. They took the shape of arrows as she imagined them and they flew faster than mana bolts as well. It was a very useful skill and she was glad she had developed it.
She had thought she was lucky getting an ancient skill, but Jade had gotten a legendary one. She wasn’t sure of the details, but she knew of at least that it was called [Immovable Object] and when she used it, it used all of her mana to increase her defenses for a short period of time. It allowed her bare body to reflect both arrows and magic.
Mia doubted these high level skills their party had gotten were usual. In fact after seeing so many more people, she realized they were the weird ones. Brandon and Thysse were much too calm in the tutorial, but from what she had heard about their beginner class dungeons she could understand why. Both had almost died and gotten past it.
She also knew that achievements factored into the abilities that they got. She was sure the dungeon and Rune Bear were great achievements. She still wasn’t quite sure why Jade got a legendary skill, but Jade didn’t talk much. She was more comfortable with Thysse than anyone else and would talk to him, but she did not know what she did before coming here or what her class dungeon was really like, its possible her achievements were higher because of that or it was simply luck.
While she was lost in thought, her mind slipped from her task of watch and she was startled to see Jade and Dylan appear at the treeline and start walking towards the base. They looked more beat up than she’d expect from a normal hunt.
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“Mia!” She heard her name coming from below and climbed down into The Hedge proper.
“Mia, something has apparently taken up residence in the cave. The monster seems so dangerous others can’t even approach. If this trial is like ours, Brandon is going to be waking up in that cave soon. We need to go!” Thysse was tossing things into his storage because they didn’t yet trust the new villagers enough to leave their tools laying around.
“Jade and Dylan are almost back, once they get here we can go. You have the potions for us right?”
“Yeah!” Thysse reached his hand out and grew a staff with a sharpened thorn on either side out of the wall and grabbed it. He had been doing this since his rake had broken while he was trying to grow medicinal herbs. It was actually stronger than his rake, but he was not used to using it as a weapon yet and moved slower with it.
They headed out, weapons in hand and met up with Jade and Dylan. After a brief discussion, they left. They headed to the cave hidden in the woods, it was not far from the camp so it did not pose much of a challenge to hike over.
When they were approaching the entrance they felt the mana pressure. Thysse and Jade took positions in the front and Mia stood close behind between the two, letting Dylan watch the rear, they made their way into the cave and down to where it opened into the bear den.
Inside the den, they saw Brandon, holding a sword they had not seen before that let off occasional sparks as it laid on the ground. As they approached, he began to raise up off the ground slowly, his body turning to face them. The mana pressure was much more intense as he raised up and he leveled his sword at the group but made no move to attack. Ding!
[Party Leader Brandon recognizes you as allies, you may approach.]
Brandon fell back to the floor below, and the pressure of his mana disappeared. The group cautiously approached, Jade asking, “He’s not dead right?”
“I don’t think so,” Thysse replied, reaching out to touch him.
An arc of electricity jumped from Brandon’s sword, shocking Thysse. Ding!
[Ascension in progress: 10 hours 39 minutes remaining.]
Thysse cried out in shock and pulled his hand away quickly. He had lost nearly an 8th of his health from the electric arc.
“Thysse!” Jade ran over to him and pulled off his alchemist’s gloves. His hand was red and burned. Mia saw her take a potion and open the cork with her teeth and pour it over his hand.
These new potions made by Thysse and Jade were strong. They healed almost half of their health bars with one bottle. Mia felt a lot safer having around a dozen of them on her.
“I guess it's time for my new items.” Mia lifted her hand, revealing a set of three gems set into a ring on her middle finger. The gems were warped together and fused. It was quite a pretty ring, the clear diamond in the center with swirls of sapphire and onyx. The combined properties of the gems made an interesting effect when she used her skill to activate the basic magic effect of the combined gem. Her hand glowed and a sphere of light hovered above her hand. It was translucent, and when she looked through it she could identify information about people and items not normally available. The downside was people could look through it to see her too.
“What the heck?” Mia could not see any of Brandon’s information, just a status the same as the one in their party menu. She could not even see his health. She moved the orb to look at the sword he was carrying and gasped in shock. “Thysse, come look at this.”
Thysse came over and looked through the lens as well. He stood, open mouthed looking at the new weapon Brandon carried.
[The Arcblade (Epic)]
+25 slashing damage
+15 piercing damage
+10 lightning elemental damage
Masterwork Abilities
Enhanced Arc Slash: Lightning
Mana Storage: lvl 2
Durability:1528/1600
50 total damage was completely absurd. Mia glanced at her staff. It added damage to her magical abilities, but it only gave an increase of 15 total damage and all of one type.
“Thysse, are you thinking what I am thinking?” Mia asked, glancing at him.
“That Brandon needs to make us new weapons?”
“Yeah, I think we are due an upgrade.”
***
Brandon opened his eyes and saw the barren cave ceiling as well as the expectant faces of his friends and party members all leaning over him. He had sensed them with his mana sight the moment he had awoken, but it was still better to see them with his own two eyes.
Brandon felt strange. His grasp of the mana in the air around him was different than before. He could feel the slightest variation of mana fluctuating in the cave. The mana that emanated from his companions bodies and passed through the air was entirely visible if he tried to focus on it at all, faint wisps of distorted air like that above a car in the summer heat. In fact the flow of everything felt different, more vibrant and natural. Seeing mana was like seeing with his own eyes now. [Ding!]
Before Brandon could open the notification, Mia spoke. “Good morning sleepyhead.”
Brandon smiled at Mia and then at the rest of the party gathered around him. He was about to say something back but remembered that he had no clothes on. “Oh my god!”
Brandin sat up so fast he smacked into Mia and Thysse’s heads with his own as he sat up and covered himself with one hand. He navigated his menus and found his clothes and armor and equipped them. “What the hell guys?” Brandon said, his face red with embarrassment as he raised his hand to his head, rubbing where it had hit his friends. “Couldn’t you have covered me up at least?”
“Do you think we wanted to see?” Thysse asked. “We couldn’t touch you without getting electrocuted by that sword, so what is this whole ascension thing about anyway?”
“I’m not quite sure, let me check my notifications.”
[You have ascended your magic power. You have taken your first steps into the power of the multiverse. How does it feel? Your mana is now purer and will flow more easily. Spells will be easier to cast and your control will be more refined. Do not grow arrogant, you are only on your first step to power.]
Is it just me or is the system showing more concern the stronger we get? Brandon thought.
“Well, It looks like my magic power is a lot stronger now after ascending. I would guess that the threshold is 100 magic power but I am not entirely sure. Once I ascended it asked if I wanted to upgrade it. According to the system, my mana is purer and will flow more easily, but the only effect I have noticed so far is that my mana sight has vastly improved.”
“Hmmmm,” Thysse hummed to himself then Mia spoke instead, “In that case I can test it. Mine is 98 and I have enough free points. If it makes me naked though, let Jade take care of me, you guys fuck off.”
“Wait, do we want to do it now? Brandon took 24 hours to ascend; it could cause other issues too.” Dylan said.
“I think we do.” Brandon said. He glanced at the group. “I bet each of you has a stat you can ascend. If we all do it now we will be much stronger when we go back out. How trustworthy are the new people?”
Mia and Thysse glanced at each other and both said, “Eeehhh.”
“I think they are generally trustworthy, but I wouldn’t trust them with my life.” Thysse said.
“I agree, most of them anyway.”
“In that case, can’t we just do it here like Brandon, the entrance isn’t that big, Brandon can guard it alone.” Jade brought up as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.
In the end they agreed to let Brandon guard them for the day and they would spend a day upgrading their stats. Mia and Thysse upgraded their magic power, and Jade did her Strength. Dylan upgraded his dexterity but before he did, he pulled Brandon aside.
“Here, the designs we discussed. I don’t have a full body yet but there are enough to make arm guards for each of us. I will put a fur padding on the inside to protect our arms after you put the metal on. I don’t want the rivets to scratch us.” Dylan pushed a bundle of leather bracers into Brandon’s arms and went to lay down next to everyone else and ascend his stat too.
Brandon took the arm guards and put them in his storage. He would love to make them now and let everyone wake up to new armor, but he wanted to guard them more seriously. He had died twice in that dungeon, only being saved by a full recovery. Brandon’s armor was in need of major repair. He had not noticed earlier, but his jacket was gone. The durability had hit 0. “I liked that jacket.” Brandon said and kicked a rock across the floor.
Thysse had insisted on telling their new camp members that they would be gone for a day at least and to not approach the cave because it was dangerous. Brandon did not know if they would listen or not, but he was prepared to cut down anyone who tried to enter the cave and didn’t listen to his warning to leave.
Brandon infused his blade with mana and drew a line across the entrance to the Bear’s den. He then sat and waited. Anyone who crossed that line would meet his blade. He glanced back at his party before pulling out one of his material books. “Thank you guys.”
He was glad he woke up surrounded by friends. It had been hard being so alone in the dungeon. He would have to text Kara and check on her during his watch. He kinda missed her banter and teasing already. Besides, more information from someone not in the same place was always helpful.