First, he just looked over his status. His intelligence had increased massively, but he didn't feel any mental change. He guessed you would get Intelligence for studying or doing mental-related things, but the stat didn't seem to noticeably help those activities.
General Skills Name: James Falksfield Class Skills
Class: Beginner Mage Active Passive Race: Human (3 free points / lvl) Mana Bolt - Beginner 4 (34%) Mana Sense - Beginner 3 (22%) Lvl 4 (12 free points) Elegar forest, Elegar [Kharth] Mana Shield - Beginner 1 (0%) Mage Intuition - Beginner 1 (0%) Str 22 Agi 36 Arcane Strength- Beginner 1 (0%) Split Mind - Beginner 1 (14%) Vit 16 End 21 General Skills Int 40 Wis 18 Storyteller - Novice 1 (47%) Instrument - Advanced 2 (31%) Will 21 Char 26 Literate - Demigod 4 (6%) Gamer - Intermediate 2 (71%) HP 113/160 MP 100/100 (1.8 per minute recovery) English - Very Advanced 3 (36%) Celestan - Intermediate 5 (0%) Resistances Identify - Beginner 2 (64%) Sprint - Intermediate 5 (30%) Pain Resistance lvl 7 (>50%) Titles Unlikely Odds Dreamer Runner Long-distance Runner Resurrected
First he had to check out his new skills. [Mana Shield] was variable depending how much mana you put into it. James followed its vague intructions, spreading mana out in a field around him, then focusing on maintaining hold of it.
When he compressed it, it would solidify into a silvery-blue sphere centered around his chest. He could change the size and shape of the shield, but he kept it in a elliptical shape around 8 feet in height and with enough room to swing his arms around barely. He also fit the bottom almost completely snug around his running shoes.
Since it was centered on himself, he didn't need to leave extra room for anything except arm swinging. A smaller shield took less mana, but more concentration. A larger one took more mana, but he didn't need it to conform to his specifications so took less time to form. Since practice shortened the casting time, he opted for a hard to form but not too time-intensive option.
He could also harden the shield with extra mana, making it an excellent versatile defense. He could only harden it enough to consume exactly 10 extra mana, though, at which point the mana dissipated instead of going into the shield. The only downside was that anything moving slower than around 2 mph would be able to enter it with only a slight pulling sensation felt by James. He learned this when trying to lean up against a tree to rest while still in his shield mode.
He also discovered that he could cause [Mana Sense] to not recognize it as mana so that his sight wouldn't be foggy just by taking the extra step to focus on the mana not being mana when he pushed it out around him. Overall, the skill cost about 20 mana and 1 minute to cast, with automatic drains if something hit it that patched the shield up. There was also a constant drain from the mana "evaporating" off the top of the shield. This only drained 3 mana per minute though, so he was sure he would be able to keep the shield up almost constantly once his Wisdom upped enough.
He had to do all tests to the shield by jumping off a tree from 30 feet up, so it was slow going, he had to completely trust in his shield, and he had no idea how it would hold up in a fight. This skill didn't even try to use numbers for defense. The final, slightly weird thing was that when he was on the ground normally, he could run and jump no problem with the bottom of the shield "clipping" through the ground, yet when jumping from more than 5 feet up with pretty much the same velocity the shield would absorb the hit. James dismissed this as the system's convenience though.
The final active skill, [Arcane Strength], was a buff skill that just boosted his Strength, Vitality, and Endurance by 5 points for 10 minutes. It seemed that none of his skills helped Agility in any way! The skill cost was pretty high at 30 mana one time cost, but with his 100 mana it was easy.
The way James activated the skill was to spread mana throughout his body before something would take over and lock it there. It then occurred to him that something similar had been happening with the other active skills. When he first used the mana bolt, he knew he had to look inward for mana. He also knew that he had to guide it to his hand to activate it. The finger gun was artistic license though, he found that his hand in a ny position would work.
This made him think of many experiments with mana. Could he learn new skills by using mana in different ways?
He would find that out later. First he had to distribute his free points and then look at his passives. He thought about putting them into Agility, still clinging to the idea of being fast, but he knew that as a mage he would have to rely on spells, not speed.
Intelligence was useful, but with his class he didn't really need to add any points into it. Three points still seemed insanely high for the cost of his skills.
Wisdom was his second lowest stat, and it was useful for mana recovery. For now, though, he didn't need much recovery with his high enough Intelligence for all of his spells. He put 2 points into it though, just because mana recovery was important.
Strength was off the table completely, as he planned to change into a swordsman when he got back to civilization. That left Will and Charisma.
Will was a tough one. By the stat name, it seemed to be helpful for resisting fear effects that he had already experienced and inflicted. He also had no doubt that there was mental magic, but he wondered if there could be a resistance for that. He ended up putting 3 points into it just to experiment.
As it turned out, he could feel the difference. It was almost imperceptible, but he could feel the world around him better. It was like a more mystical perception stat. It also boosted his [Mana Sense], showing that other stats could affect his magic.
James ended up just putting 1 more point in it to round it out at 25 Will. Charisma seemed a little obvious, but he put 3 points in to test.
This time, there was a physical difference. He stood straighter, and felt much more confident. Will and Charisma seemed like they would be way overpowered at higher levels. With high enough Charisma, you could probably force your will upon others, and with high enough Will, you could perceive anything. The Eye of Sauron's Will was probably like 1,000. He wondered if Will had another use, though. Maybe to counteract Charisma?
Another point into Charisma and he had 2 left. 12 free points really is a lot, he thought. He allowed himself to put them into Agility and cackled wickedly.
"I will be the fastest man alive!" he shouted to the gradually returning to life forest.
It seemed like the Steelskin Boar had really been a close to the apex predator around here. Nothing answered his challenge, and he looked back to his [Status]. Now it was time for the passives.
Mana Sense - Beginner 3 (22%) Mage Intuition - Beginner 1 (0%) Split Mind - Beginner 1 (14%)
They were pretty straightforward. To spare you the details, Mana Sense was a heatvision kind of thing that for now just allowed him to see mana.
Mage Intuition was a "feeling all mages get when an experiment is about to blow you into tiny mana-infused pieces." This painted mages as mad scientists, but James suspected it was to guide you in inventing new spells. He hadn't done any yet, but hopefully this would stop him from blowing himself up which you could apparently do with just your own mana.
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Split Mind let him look inwards and out at the same time. It also made him slightly smarter and better at memorization.
These three skills seemed slightly random except for Mana Sense. Split Mind was useful, but it didn't complete the set, and Mage Intuition seemed psrtislly frankensteined Will stat. The three active skills, however, were a basic attack, defense, and a buff.
He then checked his general skills. Everything was pretty self explanatory except for Gamer, Instrument, and Sprint. The rest of the skills said something about dedication and then moved on to say that he got bonuses to doing this and that. Everything seemed passive except for Sprint.
Gamer - Intermediate 2 (71%) You have an instinctive knowledge of the system and how it should function. 2* experience gains from fighting enemies and completing tests.
Instrument (Horn) - Advanced 2 (31%) You have spent many hours practicing the Horn instrument. When you play, you will occasionally be accompanied by music from the air or give various effects to your listeners.
Sprint - Intermediate 5 (30%) Activate this skill to give you a large burst of speed dependent on your Agility, Endurance, and Strength. This skill will also temprarily allieve you of fear.
Gamer was amazing. He thought it was a jab at how he had spent so much time playing video games, but it was actually a call to the LitRPGs he used to read. It seemed pretty overpowered for something just derived from that, but every new reincarnator has something special about them, probably as compensation from the gods for being literally fucking dropped into another world with no knowledge of the place they entered- well that was strange.
It turned out James did have some knowledge of this world. He knew about the human kingdom, Certhia, and the other human kingdom Garia. He knew that dwarves were short and fairies were the size of a human with wings. 'It's gotta be part of the Celestan language skill,' he thought, dismissing the thought.
Instrument was very strange. First of all, he played the trumpet. It was obvious that there was no trumpet though, so he would either have to use some sort of horn or give up on using this skill.
Sprint was interesting because it had percentage already, but James couldn't remember if the skill had leveled since he came here. He concluded that it probably hadn't, because it said "activate" and he certainly didn't get any second winds during his run away from the boar except for the points into agility. It also depended on Endurance, which clued him in at least a little more into what the stat actually did, seeming like an all around performance booster, but he didn't know why he would need endurance to hold up against hits when vitality already did that.
Other than that, the skills seemed straightforward. He tested Sprint out by focusing on the skill in his head, and it certainly worked. He ran around the forest, keeping close to the body of the boar which he was pretty sure was protecting him from the forest's denizens, and discovered it lasted around 5 minutes. When he was finished, the skill was at 79%, and he resolved to level it fully later.
First he tried some skills that he always had read about in litrpgs. He was hesitant to meditate in the forest, so instead he grabbed a stick and started swinging it around. He had little hope for a weapons skill, but over the next 15 minutes or so he ended up getting one. Ding!
General Skill acquired: [Improvised Weapons] - Beginner 1 (50%)
There was actually a lot to unpack there. First of all, that he could acquire class skills. When he looked at the description, it was also slightly less mundane than he thought it was.
Improvised Weapons - Beginner 1 (50%) You can use objects not classified as weapons as weapons. You gain a better knowledge of such an object when you infuse it with intent to use it as a weapon.
He didn't know if it was the same skill as his fighter class, but he guessed that it was. It was also at 50% of the way through Beginner 1. The system also specified the percentage and level in the notification, which James thought was strange. There could be two reasons for that.
One, which he suspected, was that you could acquire skills at different levels instead of just Beginner 1. He thought this was likely because the progress bar was at 50%, meaning that it got a starting bonus or that training a skill without the actual skill awarded percentages.
This was also plausible because there were so many factors to consider in acquiring a skill. If you had, for example, lost a monk or some equivalent class but had meditated your whole life, you would also lose the skill. But if you started meditating again, the system would probably not start your progress at zero.
However, the system did make you rely on skills a ton. So maybe if you lost a skill you had been using your whole life you would suddenly be terrible at that action. But still, your profiency would not be at zero.
The second possibility for specifying the percentage and level was that the system just did that when you acquired the skill. It did leave blank spaces in the tables and used lazy wording sometimes. But still, his percentage towards Beginner 2 was higher than for class skills.
The next skill he wanted to try, and in hindsight should have done before the weapon swinging, was bandaging his wounds.
James didn't have any bandages, obviously, but he did have clothing. The sun was going down with only his t-shirt and shorts on, but he still wanted to at least stop things from getting in the wounds he had incurred.
After his fall from the tree, he had a few small scratches, but he would have to go all the way back to the first stream he found to wash those or find a new one, and he'd rather continue on. Pain Resistance was finally doing some work, though, and he didn't feel anything from those except a small bit of stinging. It didn't interfere with his concentration, though, so it was really just letting him know he was hurt.
Tearing off a bit of his shirt was way harder than it looked in the movies. Althought after he made the first rip it was easy and just a matter of keeping the tear straight. He didn't want to use plants just because he was scared of what could be on them.
After he tore off a piece big enough for his arm and leg, he wrapped up his arm first. He made it pretty tight, and secured it with a simple double knot though. His leg was not so easy though.
The wound had bits of dirt and even some pine needles in it. It wasn't gross, but washing it out hadn't done anything except let debris stick to it. There was too much dust and grit to just pick ouut and swipe off, and that would probably be painful as well.
James decided that he would continue on to try to find a stream after getting at least a souvenir of the boar. After sizing it up, he decided on some teeth. But he didn't want to carry them in his hands, so... His t-shirt was starting to look like a crop-top.
He found a sharp rock and started pulling the teeth. He used leverage with the rock to pop them out, but to spare you the details, he eventually got some blood covered teeth and the two big tusks in his bindle after a few failed attempts to tie the knot correctly.
Before he left, though, he needed to check all of his Titles, the only area he hadn't checked yet. The first Title he checked was Unlikely Odds.
Unlikely Odds - With all of the cards stacked against you, you managed to come out on top. You are more likely to be respected by people who don't know you.
It didn't seem to have a benifit other than that, but it made James think more on Charisma and how much people were really influenced by the system. He decided not to worry about it though, as if some guy with 1000 Charisma walked up to him right now and told him to jump off of a cliff, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it, and dwelling on it wouldn't be good for his mental health.
Dreamer - You have a multitude of problems that try to drag you into despair. You reach for the stars to avoid them. +1 bonus to all stats given upon leveling up.
That last sentence was so out of place James couldn't help but laugh. That description was so philosophical, but it gave +1 to stats given upon leveling up? This actually had a lot of implications. Did humans normally only get 2 free points per level? Did [Beginner Mage] only give 2 normally? If this stat was what he thought it was, it would give him so much of an advantage.
Runner - +5 bonus to agility.
Cool bonus, nothing else to say.
Long Distance Runner - 1.5 times skill growth for all skills related to running.
Very cool. He had to get more skills related to running. And, finally,
Resurrected - You have been resurrected by [Divine] power. [Death] magic will be twice as effective on you, but [Divine] power will heal you for a quarter of the Health Points modified. (Applied at the same time as the Health Points are modified)
He had checked this one before, and it was the most wordy of his Titles. With the Titles finished, he finally felt at least a little satisfied with his exploration of the system.
It was now almost sunset, and it was getting cold. He didn't trust the forest around him enough to sleep, so he set out, aching and tired from the already hard day.