He probably had to think deeper about these options than how cool they were. Considering more seriously, he still felt like he wouldn’t pick Monk or Sorcerer.
Monk because as he had already considered, he didn’t know how to fight, it sounded like the AI had taken cues from Cultivation stories to make the Class even possible for him, as the way Ishare had explained it, the Elves who followed this path already had Magic in their blood and use it to directly improve their physical abilities, so the AI was giving him the ability to copy that by letting him draw in extra mana through breathing somehow.
It sounded very interesting, and if he ever did run into another Shard like the last, he would certainly consider choosing Monk as his second Class, since it would be great to be able to throw magic at people from a distance and punch them in the face if they got too close for comfort.
Sorcerer was not only sacrificing control for power, but also understanding, if he picked it he would be giving up the chance to know Magic, in the ways that both Elementalist and Wizard promised, and even Monk to a smaller degree. Choosing this power now and likely even in the future would likely make him safer, it would mean being able to fight back against the High Elves if they found him rather than having to hide, unless they came in huge numbers.
Mike didn’t want to sacrifice that understanding though, he wanted to know how these things worked, he already knew that Humans were apparently at a huge disadvantage to the Elves due to their lack of mana for spell casting and that it was widely believed that Humans were incapable of Magic for that reason.
He could use Magic though, and although he certainly wasn’t representative of the average Human population of this Dimension. Did that mean that Humans here could too if given the right teaching or stimuli? Could the High Elves make a similar tattoo to his own, using similar Magic, to make another Human Magic-user? they wouldn’t have the AI, which was an incredibly important part of the process.
If they had seen him using Magic or managed to get it out of Ishare that he could, they very well might try, just to see if they could, and if it worked they might make themselves able to use magic like he did, which sounded all kinds of bad.
Though it seemed that Ishare had been crucial to the design and creation of the tattoo. So they would either have to not kill him or find another Dark Elf Wizard willing to aid in their experiments.
He wasn’t sure if he wished that Ishare was alive or if he had died in that blast. The High Elf that he had seen at the end, Ailish, Ishare had called her, seemed rather angry at him specifically, and even if they hadn’t cut out his tongue as Mike suspected. They may still punish him for helping Mike escape, though if Mike was correct in his suspicion…
That Ishare had been implying that he had cut or bitten off his tongue to contact his god. He wasn’t sure if they could torture him effectively if that was true. How did you torture someone who worshipped a god named Pain?
Mike closed his eyes, he had been trying to not think about what had happened at the end, he needed to focus on his current issues. Not on the fact that the only person he had known in this world was now likely dead or being tortured for information about him. He hadn’t known him long at all, less than six hours, but he had helped Mike escape from what the AI assured him would have been a terrible fate, even if it was to serve some god, he had still taken that beam at the end, whether it was lethal or not.
Mike took deep breaths trying to steer his mind back onto the topics of Classes, Magic and Humans. An Idea came to him, one good enough to finally refocus him.
Could he create another human Magic-user? He had the tattoo and the AI if he could duplicate either than he would likely be able to do something to give the Humans of this world a better fighting chance against the Elves.
Not that he knew the greater social climate of this world, but from things the AI had implied, what Ishare had said about the Elves and his interactions with two of the three forms of them, he felt it likely that it wasn’t an equal relationship, to say the least.
Though that could certainly be personal bias. He had met three Elves in total, two of them had been trying to imprison him and take his soul out for dissection, even if it seemed they were fairly clinical about it, rather than cruel. The last had tried to help him escape, lied to him about the cruelty of their captors, taught him about magic, helped him properly escape, confessed his lies and then sacrificed himself to facilitate that escape. In that order.
Perhaps his bias was a little strong. Either way, he still felt like it would help to give Humans access to the thing that they currently most lacked. It was a goal, and he was certainly in need of those right now, time to ask the AI some questions. Instead of speaking out loud this time Mike tried mentally directing his question towards the AI. Eleven control had to be worth something, and he was getting tired of talking to empty air. “Can the AI or the tattoo be recreated or transferred to other humans to give them similar abilities to mine?” he thought at it.
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You have asked a question that requires the AI to speculate based on unknown information. The AI is currently not truly cognizant and cannot give you a concise answer, would you like the AI to create a quest with the objective.
“Recreate or transfer the AI or the tattoo to another individual to give them similar abilities to your own.”
If you do so the AI will be able to use it’s stronger processing power during your sleep or unconsciousness to formulate an answer to this question and provide possible rewards for such a task.
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So he had finally asked it a question that it hadn’t prepared for in advance. It was interesting to know that it had more processing power while he was asleep. Was it using his processing power while he was asleep? That was… concerning. He sent it a mental affirmation and the window changed.
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You have Created Quest: Empower Others
Description:
Pending…
Completion Requirements:
Pending...
Rewards:
Pending…
Please come back after getting at least 1 hour of sleep for more information.
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An hour hey? Well, he wasn’t going to get that now, he had a decision to make, and it seemed like the AI couldn’t break the tie for him with more information. He had been wondering which Class would be best for pursuing this goal but he already knew the answer to that question.
The Elementalist may be the most steady Class. With a perfect balance of magical understanding with immediate and future combat potential. Focusing on the natural elements and their interactions for power and understanding. All of the Magic he had used so far had been elemental, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other varieties out there. The mystery of Arcane magic, and the hint of Soul Magic that he had heard of from Ishare and the AI likely didn’t fall under that categorization either.
The person who had been key to making the tattoo in the first place had been a Wizard, and he had been a Wizard restricted to one type of mana, what could Mike achieve if he attained Ishares level of skill in three elements? Or even 4? If he could discover rules that applied to all different types of mana and Magic, then studying one could aid him in understanding another, compounding his efforts.
Choosing Wizard would make him weaker for the time being, but there was no reason he couldn’t become just as powerful as the sorcerer over time, he would just have to rely on his wits and talent to get him by in the meantime.
Mike looked to the Huge window with the Class options still displayed on it, “I choose Wizard,” he said out loud this time mostly to fulfil a feeling of dramatic effect. The window immediate responded changing to show a new screen.
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Congratulations! You have become a Level 1 Wizard!
You have chosen to walk the Path of the Wizard, you will study the foundations of magic and seek to understand its deepest mysteries.
You have been granted the benefits for level 1 of the Wizard Class.
Stat Change
Control will now gain Magic aspect EXP at the same rate as the Secondary Magic stat.
You have gained the stats:
+1 distributable Mental stat.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
+1 distributable Magic stat.
You have gained the skills:
Arcane Logic
Arcane Magic
Name
Mike Sven
Age
22
Sex
Male
Height
180cm
Weight
59.2kg
Wizard Level
1
Wizard EXP
0%
Average Level
2
Physical Statistics
0
Level
2
Exp
10%
Strength (STR)
8
(+/-)
Endurance (END)
8
(+/-)
Agility (AGI)
10
(+/-)
Dexterity (DEX)
10
(+/-)
Mental Statistics
1
Level
1
Exp
40%
Intelligence (INT)
15
(+/-)
Wisdom (WIS)
11
(+/-)
Perception (PER)
9
(+/-)
Willpower (WIL)
9
(+/-)
Magic Statistics
1
Level
3
Exp
50%
Affinity (AFI)
16
(+/-)
Attunement (ATU)
6
(+/-)
Control (CON)
11
(+/-)
Resistance (RES)
6
(+/-)
General Points
2
----------------------------------------
Mike felt the tattoo change, it was subtle, but the AI interacting him like it had when he touched the Shard. Perhaps this was the feeling of a Class Level? Only one way to find out.
He opened his Skills window to change his equipped Skills.
Skills
Equipped
Governing Stats
Mastery
Level
Physical Skills
Skill Slots
✓
2
Knife FIghting
✓
AGI/DEX
Amateur
1
Mental Skills
Skill Slots
2
Language
✓
INT/WIS
Novice
11
Acting
✓
WIS/WIL
Amateur
10
Arcane Logic
INT/WIS
Amateur
1
Magic Skills
Skill Slots
2
Mana Sight
✓
ATU/PER
Amateur
2
Light Magic
✓
AFI/CON
Amateur
3
Light Magic Resistance
RES/AFI
Amateur
1
Dark Magic
AFI/CON
Amateur
1
Dark Magic Resistance
RES/AFI
Amateur
1
Arcane Magic
AFI/CON
Amateur
1
Mike moved the tick for Acting into the Arcane Logic slot, he felt that same freezing sensation and when it was done the world around him felt more solid somehow. He stretched out his Attunement sense stretching it in all directions to feel for Light mana, the only kind he could sense at the moment.
Interestingly he didn’t feel any, he looked around himself with Mana Sight, he could see the same overlay of coloured space that he always did, but the nearest patch of Light mana was at a bright spot about ten metres away. He wanted to test out his new Skill. He stood up and walked over to the bright ray of sunlight that his eyes were seeing, filled with pure white mana that was mixed almost evenly with streaks of yellow.
As soon as it was within three metres of him, he could sense it, stopping at the flood of new information at that moment. He knew that he could sense less than 100 Light mana right now. He could feel Arcane Logic blurring across his mind, like a phone number or a password half-remembered, and he tried to latch onto it, but it slipped between mental fingers.
He took more steps forward, bringing more of the Light mana with the range of his attunement sense. The numbers snapped into place as he stood in the centre of the ray of sunlight. There was now more than 100 light mana in his sense, and he knew how he knew that. The mana in the sunbeam had a specific density and was multiplied by the volume of the space that it was occupying to get the amount of mana in his range, it wasn't very clear yet, and he could tell that if he delved deeper he would interact with the calculations more concretely.
He also knew that there were other kinds of mana in his range and was having to inaccurately estimate their density and factor those assumptions into his equations of how much Light mana there was. That’s why he could only sense it in factors of 100, without the ability to factor in more kinds of mana more accurately into his equation then he wouldn’t be able to get a perfect reading.
He started to reach out with his control to feel what controlling mana felt like now but before he could he heard a high pitched screech from above him and he spun around to face it. Diving down towards him fast was a huge bird with the head and antlers of a male deer, its beak-like mouth wide open and screeching, its huge talons reaching down towards him.