Chapter 14
I reached the Manor a little before sunset. I went directly to the room I was staying in and focused on meditation. Soon enough, I had put myself into a trance to recover the rest of my health and Mana points.
I opened my eyes and heard Jimmy’s voice, “It’s about time you woke up. I was wondering how long I would have to wait before you did. So, is this whole meditation, sitting in like a yoga and closing your eyes legit or is it just a fancy way of taking a nap?”
I chuckled, “It’s not a way of taking a nap but I won’t lie, there have been times I fell asleep trying to keep focus. And you can’t sit in a yoga. Yoga is more of a term, to unite your mind, body and spirit, though for most people back home its more of a way to stretch.”
“My ex used to take yoga classes for stretching. Those people are flexible and very touchy feely. The instructor especially was but that’s probably why she ran off with him. The only yoga, I ever did was when I once slipped on some ice, ending up in a split and pulling my dick muscle. Anyways, you have a lot of notifications. It seemed like you gained levels again.”
I just shook my head and stayed quiet.
You have defeated a Level 14 Shadow Thief
For defeating an opponent 4 levels higher than yours, you get an additional 40% experience.
You have defeated a Level 12 Urban Bandit
You have gained a new Level!
You have unspent Attribute Points. If the Attribute points are not assigned within a weeks’ time, The system will allocate them for you.
I was surprised that both their levels were higher than mine. I had never heard of an urban bandit class before but that was nothing new as The System likely had hundreds of classes and probably even made new ones at times.
You have defeated a Level 16 Blue Elementalist
For defeating an opponent 6 levels higher than yours, you get an additional 60% experience.
You have gained a new Level!
You have unspent Attribute Points. If the Attribute points are not assigned within a weeks’ time, The system will allocate them for you.
Blue Elementalist from what I remembered were a subclass of Elementalist that specialized in offensive Magic with water and air affinity. They had strong offensive spells, but they were weak physically and had limited defensive spells. That elementalist should have invested in some defensive magic. He probably just thought the group of warriors around him would protect him.
You have defeated a Level 14 Swordsman
For defeating an opponent 4 levels higher than yours, you get an additional 40% experience.
You have defeated a Level 12 Fighter
For defeating an opponent 2 levels higher than yours, you get an additional 20% experience.
You have defeated a Level 6 Brawler
For defeating an opponent 4 levels lower than yours, you get less 40% experience.
You have gained a new Level!
You have unspent Attribute Points. If the Attribute points are not assigned within a weeks’ time, The system will allocate them for you.
You have defeated a Level 11 Brawler
For defeating an opponent 1 level higher than yours, you get an additional 10% experience.
You have defeated a Level 10 Fighter
You have defeated a Level 7 Fighter
For defeating an opponent 4 levels lower than yours, you get less 40% experience.
For defeating greater than Five opponents with greater levels without assistance, you get an additional total 50% experience.
You have acquired a new Title.
You have gained a new Title: The Brave and the Bold
You have developed Tenacity of taking on Opponents several levels about you. For Defeating 25 opponents, multiple levels about you before your Race or Class upgrade, you Gain the title: The Brave and the Bold. All your Physical Stats are increased by 5.
+5 to All Physical Stats
SWEET! I just gained another title! This one was only for physical stats, but it was an amazing boost anyways.
I had gained 3 new levels from this fight which was also amazing. I also noticed that I was very close to the next level as well and needed only an additional 80 experience points more to get there.
I needed to decide where to put my unused attribute points. I still had 24 unused from before and now I just got 15 more free to assign for 39. And my Intelligence, willpower, and wisdom had gone up by 9 points each from the level gains. All my physical attributes had increased substantially from the new title too. It would be nice to have some more health points given that everyone and their momma were after me but perhaps, I can wait on that a little and with the recent +5 of all his physical stats, I was in a good spot.
My intelligence could always use a boost as my spells were using it, but it was already at an amazing level. My wisdom was also decent, and I had plenty of mana points for the current spells that I had. I still needed to look through the spell book I got and see if there was a spell I could learn in there.
In the end, I assigned 4 to intelligence to bring it to an even 100, 5 to wisdom to make it 55, and 8 to willpower to make it also 55. I still had 22 left over. I assigned 4 to all physical attributes and left the 2 remaining for later. I knew from my previous life that if I was able to get all my stats over 60 before the first-class evolution, I would get a sweet title. I already had the intelligence up. For most people this would be an impossible task which is why the Title was given for it. What made it impossible for most was the sheer number of total attribute points that were needed to bring up all those attributes. Even if everyone started with 10 points in each of the stats, they would still need 50 more or a total 450 points for the 9 different attributes. Even if you somehow got a legendary class at level one which has never happened and got 12 points to assign, it would still not be enough without having titles already.
I looked over my status page. Something different was happening, now I could also see the spells provided by the various magical weapons and I could see the magical weapons listed at the end. The status page template didn’t change much so this was unusual. The System did not like these types of changes from what I understood so this was a slight change from the normal. My evolved skill Mana Thread has gone back to novice rank once it had evolved which was ok, I guess. I still was not sure what to do with it or even how to approach in using it. I had tried to use it by calling It out, thinking about it and nothing seemed to make it do whatever it was supposed to do. Mana Thread…maybe knitting a sweater was involved. I could make some ugly Christmas sweaters. That is, if they ever start celebrating Christmas here.
Name: Gatsby Lark
Race: Human Avatar
Primary Class: Mana Scepter
Level: 13
Experience to next level: 80
Primary Attributes
Strength: 42
Dexterity: 47
Speed: 44
Constitution: 50
Endurance: 43
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 55
Willpower: 55
Charisma: 35
Unused Attribute Points: 2
Secondary Attributes
Health Points (HP): 542
Mana Points (MP): 650
Stamina Points (SP): 540
Psychic Defense (PD): 110
Perception Points: 202
Skills:
Arcanum Studies - Intermediate
Mana Thread - Novice
Intimidation - Novice
Spells:
Mass Sleep – Intermediate
Magic projectile – Advanced
Revealing Light (Chain of captivation)
Chain Lightning (The Shocker)
Titles:
Amalya’s Blessing and Curse
Rage against the Titans
Genocidal for Life
The brave and the bold
Perks:
+5% damage to all foes 5 Levels greater than you
Magical Items:
Ring of minor healing
Red robe of spellcrafters
Boots of the lost wanderer
Wand of minor telekinesis
Chain of captivation
The Soul of Amalya
Silent Storm
Magic Short sword
Ring of defense
The shocker
There was a knock at the door and Danica peeked in. “Hello, Mr. Gatsby. I was just coming to see if you needed anything.”
I knew the young lady was just trying to be nosy, but I didn’t mind. She was a good kid overall and honestly it was a breath of fresh air when she was around. She probably wanted to know if I had found a spell that I could teach her yet. She had a one-track mind which was good because that kind of obsession with becoming better is what made you stand above the rest and excel in whatever you did.
I smiled and waved her in, “No. I’m fine. Thank you for asking. I do have something for you though. I handed her one of the magic rings I had acquired. She looked at it and then the description that I shared.
Ring of Defense
Item Type: Magical Jewelry - Common
Alignment: Any class
Material: bronze
Durability: 50/50
Description: These Rings are given to the warrior class as a reward for finishing their training. They provide 10% protection from all physical attacks.
Danica developed a puzzled look on her face.
“Do you not like it or something. It’s just a little extra protection in case its needed,” I explained.
“It’s not that. It’s just, I’m not a warrior and I haven’t done any training at all. Well, mother has tried to show me some maneuvers with a small sword, but I would rather be a Mage, so I didn’t see the point.”
“It’s just a description, Danica. It doesn't require you to be a warrior or have trained as such.”
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The ring was not anything that would stand out as it was a plain band and the indication that it belonged to a faction was on the inside part of the band so I did not think it would be much of an issue. I had also looked at it with mana sight and it did not give off much mana. Apparently even though my skill mana sight had evolved to mana thread, I was still able to use the sight.
Danica smiled wide and put the ring on immediately, which shrunk slightly to accommodate her smaller finger.
“Is your mother back yet?”
“No. She is still out of town on some political thing or something. She said she would be back by tomorrow eve at the earliest.”
I emptied out the pile of magical weapons and equipment and told Danica to keep them and give them to her mother when she came back. I also handed her any extra coins that I had beyond “a handful”. I had no need for the weapons and the equipment at all. The money would have been useful, but I guess I will have to do without it. I was giving it without the expectation of getting it back, so they no longer belonged to me. A little trick to get around the curse. Of course, I’m sure Demira would give them back to me if I asked. She was a little surprised to see the pile but collected it none the less bringing them to another area in the house over a few different trips. She came back and stood there quietly at the doorway.
I smiled, knowing what she was thinking, “I’m sorry Danica, I still have not been able to get a spell that I could teach you.”
I wanted to tell her about the spellbook that he had obtained off that mage, but I had not looked through it yet to see if it had any spells, I could learn in it, and I didn’t want to disappoint her unnecessarily if he was not able to learn any to teach her.
The best way to learn spells was through a scroll that was specifically for learning the spell. You could also be taught a spell by someone who had some level of expertise in it. Another way to learn a new spell was from the spell book of another mage but this was by far the worst, and hardest way to learn it. Not to mention a very dangerous way.
Mages knew their spell books could be stolen unless they were Soul bound to them and no one wants their spell books stolen. Soul binding was not a cheap option and that was if you could find someone that could do that. So oftentimes when they would write the spell down in a book, they would write it in a scribble that only they could read. That was the nicest scenario. Other more malicious mages would add inappropriate arcane characters which only they knew about or could tell where they were. If a person unfamiliar with these characters tried to use the book, the spell would likely misfire causing potential harm to the one who used it. Some of the even more devious mages also would place runes and spell traps in their books so when they were opened by the wrong mage, that mage would find himself in a world of hurt.
So naturally, I opened the spell book and looked at what was in it. I had the book outside just in case and covered himself as best he could with armor. This mage was obviously stronger than the one from the alley where I helped Danica. That guy did not have any traps, but this one could. This mage was much higher in level and seemed to be somebody in his little magic cult.
Typically, it was the more advanced mages that rigged the spell books. They either developed the proficiency to do it themselves or had enough coin to hire someone for the job, which was also not a cheap thing.
I opened the book slowly with first the cover and then one page at a time while trying to keep as much distance as possible from the book. The helmet I wore covered my head and face surprisingly well but there were slots for my eyes and mouth. I went through each of the pages one at a time, each page being turned slowly until the end. Spoilers, no fireball, or something similar leapt up at me.
I was glad that there were no traps that activated from going through the book. I knew a mage once, who had placed a trap which shot out a stream of corrosive acid as the book opened to a certain page by anyone but himself. His spellbook was never stolen but his trap did activate one time when his teammate who was an idiot barbarian decided he wanted to look at the spellbook while the mage was asleep to learn some of the secrets of magic. The acid destroyed the left half of the face. The barbarian had turned his face at the last second and managed to somehow survive it. The barbarian didn’t die though I imagine most would have. He surprisingly did not mind having a destroyed half face. Something about it gave him more street cred amongst his people back home from what he said.
Once I had ruled out any obvious booby traps, I went through each of the pages again, noting down all the ones with writings on them. The book had quite a few spells in it but unfortunately out of the twenty or so spells, only three were even marginally legible. The rest were written in arcane, but they had scribbles and unknown characters in them. I could overtime rule out the fake characters thrown in but at the novice level that would not be possible.
The three that were just barely legible also had some characters in them, but these seemed a little more obvious and I was able to pick them out. I still had the other spellbook from before and most of the pages in that book were empty so I decided to start copying the ones I could make out.
I reread the three spells multiple times to make sure that I didn’t miss any hidden characters in them. One of the spells was level 0, the other two were level one and level three.
I started rewriting them on plain paper repeatedly one spell at a time. The lines were carefully calligraphed onto the pages with exact details while at the same time making sure that none of the extra characters were copied over. The lines of the language were steadily straightened out over multiple efforts to make them more accurate and easily legible. I was planning to use the spell book I was copying spells into temporarily and then give it to Danica once she had some experience under her belt.
The rewriting of the spell would not only increase my Arcanum studies skill, but it would also slightly increase my chance of learning the spell and thus casting it appropriately for the first time and every time after that. The only bad part was that it was time-consuming. Every time I would write the spell down, a small mana tendril came out of the document. The tendril would grasp onto a finger and then disperse by itself in seconds. Was this a mana thread? And what was it doing? I tried to grab it with my other hand but that did nothing, and the tendril dissipated. When it showed up again, I tried to focus my mind on it and grab it. It snapped back and forth when I tried to grab it but eventually freed itself and dissipated. After a few more tries, I was finally able to grab it for a minute using my willpower without it acting out like a mental patient in a straitjacket. I still had no idea what this would do what it meant but hey…small victories.
Given that these were elemental spells, and I didn’t have any affinity specifically towards the elemental type that these spells were, I was at a huge disadvantage. Rewriting spells to increase the chance was not something that was well known. Most people would want to jump right in thinking that only by casting the spell successfully, they could increase their proficiency with it. They were mistaken. Though it was true that the more you cast a spell, the more familiarity you would develop with it and the greater your proficiency would develop over time, the was also something to be said for learning the best and most purified version of the spell as it was intended.
The best spellcasters weren’t the ones that knew the most spells or had the biggest mana pools, they were the ones that had developed a strong foundation right from the beginning. The ones that took time to make sure that the spell they cast was optimized through the practice of opening appropriate mana channels.
Eventually my hard work paid off and I learned a new spell. It was a level 0 spell, but I was excited about it. The other two were great spells and would be a lot more beneficial but I knew that with the basic level 0 spell, I could start Danica off in her education. I did not want to see that disappointed look on her face and now I was glad that I wouldn’t have to.
Spell: Summon Water
Level: 0
Spell Type: Elemental, Conjuring
Cost: 25 MP
Cast time: Instant
Duration: n/a
Cooldown Period: 1 hour
Effect: Summons water from the elemental plane. Will summon a cup full for each point of intelligence of the caster. The water may be cast into a receptacle. If no receptacle is used, the water will be summoned 5 feet away from the caster.
Spell: Path of Frost
Level: 1
Spell Type: Elemental
Cost: 100 MP
Cast time: 3 seconds
Duration: 1 minute per level of caster
Cooldown Period: 1 hour
Effect: Cover with Frost an area up to 100 feet away from the caster. The size of the area of each side is equal to the Level of caster x10. Anyone moving on the ground in the area with dexterity less than the Intelligence of the caster is affected. Movement is slowed to 25% for anyone affected. 50% chance of falling if affected.
Spell: Thunder Stun
Level: 2
Spell Type: Elemental, Mental
Cost: 200 MP
Cast time: Instant
Duration: 1 second per level of caster
Cooldown Period: 5 minutes
Effect: Causes anyone with Psychic defense less than the Intelligence of the caster to become stunned.
The summon water spell was great for what it did and considering the fact it was only level 0, made it even better. I could teach this to Danica and get her started on her spellcasting future. I would need to explain to her about not jumping to selecting a class right away and aim to get some titles first as I did. Hmm, I wonder if I could help her get some Titles. Maybe by exploring a dungeon. I needed to help her get in a better class than the usual stuff that people get.
So far, I had obtained Four Titles which was very impressive for any individual as most people often did not even get one and some were lucky enough to get a few in their lifetime. For me, four was not even close to being enough. I had to get much stronger than this, considering all the knowledge that I had from my previous life and the fact that I knew much more about titles than most other people. Titles were not easy to come by, but I had lived through a couple hundred years done quite a bit of research on them. The king of Swendland, had a whole host of scholars dedicated to researching and acquiring knowledge about Titles. I was fortunate enough to get in good graces with him by saving his son’s life once and he allowed me access to that knowledge. Without that knowledge, there is no way I would have been able to do as much as I did. I may have still been able to ascend but I think it would have taken a lot longer.
The best way to get Titles was to complete dungeons, lots of them. If I was able to advance myself a certain amount before the first-class upgrade, then that should also get a title.
The summon water spell may be weak initially but even a weak utility spell has the potential to be fantastic. The Path of Frost spell was great for crowd control. I could think of a few different occasions when it could be useful.
Thunder stun on the other hand was an amazing spell. Being able to stun someone for a dozen seconds would pretty much mean their end unless they just had great defenses that worked passively. Even then, all damage done to the stunned person should be enhanced substantially and I imagined that almost every strike could potentially be a critical hit. The bad part was that the caster would have to overcome the target’s psychic defense. Psychic Defense was a secondary attribute determined by the combination of willpower and wisdom. The caster would have to have a very high intelligence attribute for this spell to work effectively. Fortunately, mine was crazy high and I planned on raising it even more.
Time meditating helped quite a bit. I was feeling refreshed, and all the secondary attributes were back to normal. I needed to go searching for Feerix and find out if there really were kidnappings occurring of children. And somehow it was related to the mages and the government. A task way overdue. I wanted to tell Demira but with all that she had going on, I didn’t want to bother her about it without knowing a bit more.
I was ready to get going. Grimlock, had given a general map of the forest in which he suspected Feerix to be. Before that though, I needed to find Danica.
I searched through the Manor for the young lady. The Manor seemed so empty and lifeless in a way I had not noticed before. I knew that Demira had some guards to protect the Manor and her children. She likely also had several other defensive measures such as protective runes set up no doubt. The room where I was initially kept as a “guest” and similar rooms had runes outside them. There were also some protective runes around the various parts of the outside walls and grounds.
I found Danica at the back of the house. She had been pretend playing by herself. I watched her for a minute as she enacted a fight of some sort using a tree branch like a wand. She was a sweet kid and reminded me of my own daughter. It had been more than a couple of hundred years since I had seen her last, but her sweet innocent face was still fresh in my thoughts.
“I see you have been casting some serious magic right there with that wand,” I asked Danica.
She turned and saw me. Suddenly she broke out into laughter, “I was just being silly and pretending to slay an evil mage,” she said while twirling the branch wand.
“Are you ready to try your hand at a spell?”
Her eyes lit up and she just grinned nodding yes.
I started to show her the basic steps in trying to cast the spell to summon water. The spell was not complicated, and neither was the incantation but, in the beginning, it was important to be more precise than not. Danica took to it easily and in just a short time, was able to produce her first spell and a fine amount of water.
That little bit of water may have just as well have been the most incredible, amazing thing she had ever seen because she started cheering and dancing circles around me. I don’t think I had ever seen anyone as excited as this girl casting her first spell. I couldn’t help but grin watching her dance around in circles like nobody was watching. She finally calmed down after about twenty or so minutes. She kept grinning for another few minutes afterwards.
“That was so amazing. This must be the best day ever!” she said excitedly.
“I’m happy to see you so happy.”
She took a deep breath, “Why does everyone in the world not want to cast spells and become a great and amazing and powerful sorcerer?”
She may have asked a rhetorical question, but I answered anyways, “It’s not an easy path.”
“I would never ever ever dream of being anything but one. I’m so happy to have learned my first spell today.”
She went back to casting the spell. I stayed with her for a couple more tries while meditating with her in the middle during the cooldown period. She didn’t have much of a mana reserve so had to stop after every two castings of the spell. I told her to keep practicing whenever she was able to and to not let her mana hit zero. I also told her to continue doing the meditation whenever possible in between.
It had already become late to go to the forest. I decided to retire for the night and then there was a knock at the door.
“Are you just going to ignore me all day?” asked Daniella with a smile. Her cowl covered her head and her eyes partially, but I could tell they had devilish glimmer to them.
I stuttered a bit, “I did not…”, before I could finish, Daniella walked in through the door past me and added, “I’m just joking with you. I have only just got back now. Are you free for dinner?”
I wasn’t hungry but I knew she wasn’t asking.
She had brought back from the city market different types of delights, including various fruits, roasted lamb, and meat skewers.
“This feast is very impressive. It couldn’t have been cheap.” I had the impression that her family was struggling with money but perhaps that was just Demira. Or perhaps I was wrong in my assumption.
“It was a gift. I helped a caravan with a problem in the forest and then escorted them to the city.”
I nodded, “What kind of problem?”
“One with two legs, two arms and a tenacity to jump caravans and steal from them.”
“Monsters? Or bandits?”
“Bandits. There were only four of them so not too difficult. I was able to take them out from a distance.”
“Well, I’m glad you weren’t harmed and thank you also for sharing your reward with me.”
“You can just go ahead and ask me, you know,” Daniella said, staring me down.
“Ask you what?”
“About going with you to find this guy in the forest.”
“How did you know?” I asked but only got a half smile back from her as she took a bite of the lamb.
We sat in an awkward quiet for few moments, “Daniella, have you been stalking me?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
“Stalking is such a strong word. I would describe it as…um following you from a distance without you noticing.”
“That sound an awful lot like stalking to me.”
“I was bored, and my calendar was clear for the day,” Daniella replied. “Does it? I was bored, and my calendar was clear for the day,” Daniella replied.
“Your mother asked you to look in on me, didn’t she?”’
“Ha, you ARE a smart one! Yes, mother was concerned that you might get into some trouble, so she asked me to keep an eye on you. By the way what’s the deal with you and my mother?”
“The deal with your mother?”
“Yes. When are you planning to propose marriage to her? I’m not sure I see you as her type but I’m not here to intrude in a romance,” Daniella asked with her hand resting on her chin.
“Whoa,” I raised my hands up in a surrender position, “We have nothing beyond friendship. I care for her and consider her a good friend but that is all. She has also taken a vow to stay away from any further relationships after the death of youryour father so a romantic relationship is not even on her radar.”
“Radar? Yes, those Paladins and their piety. Always way too noble and decent for their own good,” Daniella said with some jest, “Have you taken a vow of celibacy yourself?”
I paused for a moment and stared at the hooded woman sitting next to me, “You knew that didn’t you…about her vow?”
She tilted her head just slight, and I caught a smile, “I did!”she replied.
“You weren’t asking because you wanted to know if we had a relationship which you knew we didn’t. You asked to find out if I had interest in her beyond friendship.”
Danilla smiled a little wider but didn’t say anything further.
I chewed some meat. I thought for a moment and then asked, “So were you there when I was attacked by all those men?”
Daniella gave another half-smile and turned her head towards me, “You seemed to have everything under control, and I was ready in case you needed the help. Which you clearly did not,” she gave me a wink barely visible under the hood of her cloak.
I broke out in laughter, “I almost died from the lightning bolt! And that leader nearly carved me up like a thanksgiving turkey.”
Daniella squinted her eyes and looked back at me sternly, “But did you die?”
We both laughed for a while.
“What is thanksgiving turkey? Is this one of your world’s Euphemisms…something to imply about sex?” She asked.
“No, not a euphemism. Thanksgiving is holiday in my old world, and we eat turkey during this holiday.”
“Hmm, so what do you give thanks for?”
“Whatever good things we have in life, our children, spouse, good health, and whatever else.”
“Seems nice. We could use a holiday like that here. I imagine though that not many people would have much to thank for around here. It would be nice none the less.”
“Humble people will always have something to be thankful for.”
We finished eating and Daniella got up to leave. “We leave at the first light. Is there anything you need for the travel.”
“I’m good as gold,” I said while still sitting at the table.
She raised her eyebrow at me.
“It’s a…” before I could finish, she interrupted, “An idiom. We have them here too, though I have not heard of that one before. But I got what you were trying to say.”
She got to the door and turned to look back at me with a mildly wicked smile. “Don’t dream too wildly of me. You may not want to wake up.”
With that, she walked out into the dark hallway.
“Be careful, broski, I know girls and that girl looks like she will be trouble,” Jimmy spoke up in my mind.
I just chuckled, “No lies there Jimmy! I had no idea you were listening.”
“Oh, I have been for a while. Just sitting here like pre-surgery Michael with his bag of popcorn in a theater enjoying the flirting.”
“There was no flirting!”
I only heard jimmy laughing. Yea, even I didn’t believe it and I just said it.