Author's Ramblings:
So, it's obviously been 20 months since I last posted, and I really don't remember what I was gonna do with this story, so I am gonna wing the next few chapters and see where it leads.
If you have any ideas towards what to add to the story in the future, please comment it. Any spelling or grammar corrections is appreciated too. My old laptop had all the notes I wrote for this story and that hard drive is not at all recoverable. I lost many chapters I had written already and even notes on several characters I was planning to create.
20 Months is a long time. Since then, my grandfather and uncle have both passed away, I graduated with my Computer Science BS degree, completed an internship at a mobile development company, got a GA position for graduate school as a php/javascript developer, broke up with my fiance (we were dating 4.5 years, engaged 1.5 years, for a total of 6 years), lived in Costa Rica for a few months and basically was couch surfing while i was there.
And now I feel like I have come full circle. At the time I posted the first chapters of this story, I was being asked to declare my undergraduate thesis topic and capstone project topic (Note, those were two different things too). Now I am being asked to declare my Master's thesis. The difference being that my Master's thesis is being declared an entire school year in advance before the defense, while my undergraduate one only needed to be declared before the semester started where I was gonna defend it.
I have been totally using RRL since then too, just typically not logged in.
You know, as a CS major, you'd a thought I would have backed up my story ideas with a git repo or something.
But I always kept wanting to come back and write more for this story, but never really did. Unmotived by the loss of the material on it, plus distracted by life makes it kinda hard. Also, I am a planner when it comes to writing something, so the loss of the chapters I had written and not posted and all the ideas I had was a hard hit in the gut. The very fact that I am winging the next few chapters with basically no planning and only a vague since of the direction I was going to before is a huge difference in how I write typically. So, seriously, harass me on the thread if there is anything wrong or confusing with what you are reading.
Now that I have rambled awhile, onto the new chapter. I wonder if anyone of the very few people who read my previous two chapters even still uses this site? Well, It's only two chapters to catch up on anyway.
This chapter is a bit shorter in comparison to those, and I'll add in the tables tomorrow along with posting the next chapter and making any posted corrections in this or previous chapters.
Italics are thoughts, "" is someone speaking, [italics] is mental communication and .... well that's it for now. I think in the previous two chapters I bolded skill names or something, I don't recall. First person narration is not thoughts.
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Six months later....
I'm joking. You wanna know what happened right? Well I'll tell you.
He really did bring me food and such. I was expecting game that I would have to clean and cook myself, a task which I had no experience in, but was surprised when he would bring back large amount of fruits mostly. Once in awhile he would bring back some meat, but it would already be chopped, cooked, and seasoned. Frankly, it was really suspicious. I mean, how does a bird cook stuff?
But I didn't ever really have much time to ponder. Training started immediately. Basically, to use wind magic I needed to do the following.
1. Use my mental hand to take hold of the mana within me. It was confusing at first because I kept reaching to my life energy instead. Even though my status plate said I have an equal amount of each within me, that energy was much more 'noticeable' in my mind. It took me a month to successfully do this the first time.
2. Using a portion of my mana, further divide that portion into four. One of the four smaller portions 'linked' to the mana mist like presence that was within the air around me. Another disseminated into the subtle vibrations found within the wind. The third was linked to those two and the fourth anchored the third to me. Simply put the anchor was more like a gas peddle that I could use to pour more mana through and the link was feeling quote a bit like a driving wheel. It took me three months to accomplish these four tasks.
3. It took me another month to learn various ways to use wind magic. I could wrap it around me and use it to fly (or in my case glide). Or I could do something that I could only describe as a "Wind Blade" where I could shape the wind to be angular in such a way that it was almost possible to call it "sharp". Then, propel the damn thing.
All in all all these above tasks took me about a total of 5 months. But that isn't all I was doing. I also took advantage of the huge cavern that was Lelantos's nest. I jogged, did push ups, sit ups, found various sizes of rocks and did squats in addition to practicing martial arts techniques I could remember starting with the basics and working up. Well, I honestly only practiced most martial arts I studied long enough to learn just the basics and form exercises. After I was able to do each one of the four tasks, I would use my work out session to practice mana tasks over and over again while distracted by working out.
Later, or earlier depending on the day, I would dedicate myself to the next task at hand. Which accumulated into my finally "learning" the skill:
Wind Magic
Also, thanks to my physical training and the fact that Lelantos took pleasure in "demonstrating" his magic to me whenever I failed.... by using it on me, I had some stat increases in Strength, Stamina, Vitality, and Agility. Diligently practicing the tasks necessary for wind magic also boosted my intellect somewhat.
So during the last month I would wake up, eat, and do physical training while practicing the basics of wind magic. I would eat again and rest for an hour to let my body and mana recover. The afternoons were then spent training the advanced stuff that I had figured out how to do. They eventually become sub-skills under Wind Magic. It was here where I truly noticed how amazing Youthful Growth, Adaptive, and Skill Evolution all are. Apparently, according to Lelantos, it should have taken me many more months to have obtained Wind Magic as a Skill, but that was reduced by Youthful Growth. Once it got established as a Skill the basics became much easier to do, and doubly so thanks to Adaptive giving me the extra rank. Thanks to the extra rank, when I developed the sub-skills (Made easier to do thanks to Skill Evolution) they started at a much higher rank. Why? They are what is called "First circle" magics. Basically, the simplest of wind magics. If I had been Rank 1 in Wind Magic, they would have started at Rank 2 (thanks to the +1 by Adaptive). As a Rank 2, first circle magics gain a starting +10 and second circle gain a starting +5. In my remaining two weeks I got them up an additional rank (made easier by Skill Evolution).
All in all, I was happy with these results. With one exception.
Flight was a third circle wind magic.
I had 'Glide'. Not even 'Hover', which is a second circle, but 'Glide'.
To get Flight, I need to master Hover, which I can get by mastering Glide. Rank 20 is considered mastered. I would love to appreciate the simplicity of this tier up system.
Except Lelantos was currently carrying me to the mouth of the cavern as I struggled against him with all my might.
"YOU STUPID BIRD, YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME" I punched his wing, poked at his eyes, tried to kick him, but to no avail.
"Come now, come now! You can either die fast with a fall, or I can just stop bringing food."
"Learn to fly or you will die~" he chanted in a singsong voice.
"Wait, WAIT! I'll do it but let me prepare first!" We stopped right at the edge of the cavern. I looked down the stone skyscraper and gulped. The forest was a very long way down.
I took a deep breath and gathered the wind around me into a Hover spell.
And jumped.
Maybe it is because I was rapidly accelerating, or because the wind was whipping around me increasingly fast as I approached terminal velocity, but within a few moments I could no longer maintain the Glide spell.
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I desperately tried to wrap the air around me into a usable form but couldn't maintain any stability with the magic. In other words...
I was fucked. Completely fucked.
Why on earth did I think I could do this? How had I not foreseen the increased difficulty caused by rapid air movement?
I'm dumb, completely dumb.
I had always read about moments like this in fantasy novels and such. The moment you realize you're gonna die, there is supposed to be this big epic second where the entirety of your life flashes before your eyes.
The only thing flashing before my eyes were traces of a transparent yellowish liquid because I pissed myself. I admit it, I was scared and screaming, but you know what? Fuck you, and fuck that bird.
I apologize for my French.
Now back to the story.
Strangely enough, in the middle of all my screaming, crying and pissing as I fell I had a weird idea. I cast several Wind Blade spells, but instead of propelling them, I linked them together to make a wedge like air wall in front of me. This seemed to lower the amount of air resistance rushing into and around me. I then weaved a Glide spell around me. It didn't fall apart. If I wasn't falling to my death I would cry with joy.
But I wasn't done just yet. I then used the rest of my mana to continuously layer myself with Glide spells.
Just in time too as my wedge of Wind Blades hit the canopy, myself shortly behind it.
As I bust through the canopy the Wind blades in front of me were smashing obstacles out of my way. A few branches here and there flew towards me but I redirected one of the air currents being used for a Hover spell to block them.
Finally, the ground was fast approaching. The Wind Blades hit first smashing up the hardened ground. Then, I redirected my Hover spells towards the ground, and for I felt myself slow tremendously. But one by one my controls over the spells dissipated as they couldn't take the sudden force until final the last one went away.
I hit the ground hard.
But I survived! Miraculously!
Although my arm broke and I had a broken rib. I was in too much pain to cry out in joy.
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Two months later I was still living with the crazy bird.
But now I could get in and out of the cavern without risk of fatal injury. Due to my using multiple Hover spells in a layered set up, it's rank soared and went to the mastery rank, Rank 20. From this I earned the skill Glide. It started at Rank 7 (1 from my trait, 1 for its initial level and 5 for Wind Magic Rank 2). It was strange to use it the first time, as I hadn't learned it by practicing it first. Having the skill though was like knowing how to intuitively use it.
I also mastered Wind Blade. This earned me the spell Homing Wind Blade. It started at rank 7 too. It was a surprise since, as it was a homing spell, I expected it to be in a higher circle of magic.
Also, the use of multiple Wind Blades linked together got me Storm Shred. Basically I compact a bunch of Wind Blades together in a compressed ball and release it in a direction to have hundreds of miniature Wind Blades spew out decimating everything in its path. Suffice to say, this was a third circle magic and thus started at Rank 2.
Finally, I earned a spell called Wind Garb. It was a second circle magic but it had, in my opinion, possibly the best effect. It created a thin barrier of wind around me to deflect any minor and insignificant physical attacks.
I was truly happy! I felt like I was accomplishing a lot and made a huge stride forward.
My current stats were as such:
Name: Mathea Randel Age: 2.67 (Spiritually 24.67)
Race: Human Level: 1
Status: Healthy
Mana: 450 LE: 250
Strength: 25 Agility: 25(+7)
Vitality: 30 Dexterity: 23 (+7)
Stamina: 25 Intellect: 39
Perception: 20 (+20) Wisdom: 25
With this in mind, I was forced to ask Lelantos a question.
"What are the criteria for leveling up?" I pondered his way.
"It's based on how much your stats rise."
"My base stats have gone up by 42 points and I haven't leveled up. Is that normal?"
"Add up your base stats when you first unlocked your status and divide by 8. That's how much you would normally need to level up. If it's something like 12.5 then it may be 12 or may be 13 and it is decided on a level by level basis. In the case of humans like you, due to Youthful Growth that number gets doubled until you're 20."
"And that is good?"
He looked over at me. He looked at me with his face bent forward, and if he had glasses would be gazing over the top of the frames.
"Extremely. Since humans have a level cap of one hundred, and it is impossible to raise stats once you have reached a level cap, then raising your level as much as possible now until your body is the age of twenty is ideal since you can get double the stats per level. It is due to this trait that humans have the widest disparity between individual strength. Though to most other races, you're all just weak."
"Uhm... so can people only train their stats and such up after they have unlocked the status?"
"Correct."
"When do humans normally unlock their status?"
"Hoho curious about your potential are we? Normally, between the ages of 10 to 15. You can image how those ages alone can create a huge disparity. But you aren't even three yet. If you train well, you can overshadow most of your peers."
He sighed.
"That brings us to the next task at hand." He gazed intensely at me.
"Nine years. Four months. That is how long I will stay here and help train you before I must continue on my journey. Your situation interests me, so I am willing to aid you. That being said, I cannot train you alone."
Nine years worth of training? I wonder how strong I could get in that time. In 8 months I am 1 stat point away from level 2. If we assume that as the average... I would be about level 16 at that time.
Wait, not alone? Who else is there?
"Who -"
"Quiet. I'm not done. He is already on his way and is also bringing tools and materials to get you out of those disgusting rags you're still wearing. He will be teaching you swordsmanship, how to use your life energy, as well as fire, alteration and divining magic. I will continue to teach you wind magic, as well as earth, mind, and healing magic. Since we are in the Great Forest, special focus will be given to mind magic if you want to live."
"Wouldn't it be better to focus only on a few things? Having so many things to learn... it seems like I would become a Jack of All trades and a master of none."
"Child. You have multiple traits boosting the rate of skill growth, and stat growth. You also unlocked your status at the age of two AND since I haven't told you this previously your base stats were double what other humans start with at an older age."
"What?!" D-double? And since I have so much extra time to train... "I get it. You want to use my traits to give me a solid foundation in everything, maybe somewhat past foundations, and then use my my higher stats to offset the disparity of someone who is of nearly equal level but has a higher skill rank in a smaller set of skills."
"Correct. And you will have a tactical advantage of having a diverse skill set. By the time you get to the age where others in your age group are finally catching up in levels, your Skill ranks will be higher. When they catch up in Skill ranks, your stats will be higher. And if they gain personal traits and such that can somehow get even their stats matching yours, you will have tactical advantage by diversity of skills. Finally," he said that last word slowly "since we live in this Great Forest... I'll also be giving you alot of practical experience."
I gulped audibly. The glean in his eye dared me to question his intentions. This mischievous, sly, evil turkey! One day I'm gonna bring some people here and cook you and start a new Thanksgiving tradition in this world!
"L-let's get started then." I stated dumbly, rubbing my hand on the back of my head.
Well, this makes it easier for me overall. But I really need to learn more about this world than just the Skills and Status stuff. I hope this guy who is coming can teach me about the world itself too.
I sighed heavily. It was gonna be a long nine years.