Chapter 6
We arrived back at the manor. Daniella went and headed straight to the front door, but I stayed out in the yard.
Daniella turned back to look at me with a smile, “Are you afraid to come back in? I promise mother won’t be mad at you for keeping me out so late on our tryst.”
I laughed, “We did have an adventurous day in town but as all good things, this day must come to an end.”
She smiled and walked back inside. I looked around at the grounds and went to an area around a massive tree which was surrounded by small pebbles.
It was time for me to practice my spell. I also needed to work on activating the coin. There was still enough light out here to make out the glyphs properly and I needed to take advantage of that.
I also still had not assigned my free attribute points. I had gained another level after our encounter with the street thugs. It would have been nice had I gained a couple, but I figured I only gained the one because they were lower levels and Daniella had done most of the killing especially of the leader.
My intelligence was pretty high already, but spells used that quite a bit and I knew intelligence was also beneficial in learning new skills, so I placed Four out of the Twenty available attribute points into it. Then I also needed to improve my ability to take damage a little better, so I placed Eight into Constitution. And finally, I wanted to improve my ability to hit with projectiles better, so I placed the last Four into Dexterity. My +5 to all attributes from the coin were automatically added. Unlike most weapons or gear that gave boost to attributes, the points from the coin were considered part of me as the coin was soul bound to me.
Status Page
Name: Gatsby Lark
Race: Human Avatar
Primary Class: Common
Level: 4
Experience to next level: 22
Primary Attributes
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 20
Speed: 17
Constitution: 23
Endurance: 16
Intelligence: 69
Wisdom: 23
Willpower: 20
Charisma: 17
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Secondary Attributes
Health Points (HP): 245
Mana Points (MP): 299
Stamina Points (SP): 200
Psychic Defense (PD): 43
Perception Points: 112
Skills:
Arcanum Studies
Spells:
Mass Sleep – Novice
Magic projectile – Novice
My secondary attributes had increased substantially as a result of the increase in my primary. The +5 to all attributes was such an amazing boost. I was already at level 4 after only a couple of days and my attributes were looking great. It had taken me weeks to get just to level 4 when I did this previously 200 years ago. Despite the nice progression, I knew I had to continue to increase my pace of advancement to have a fighting chance. The early levels were easy to come by as each level costed the same from 1 – 10. After 10 however the experience needed to gain a level increased by 10 percent every two levels.
I also would need to choose a class at level 10. The system allowed you to choose classes as early as level 1 but it made you choose a class at level 10 or it chose one for you. I wanted to delay choosing a class as long as possible. There were some benefits to choosing a class early. The main benefit was that you received more attribute points per level than not having a class and you could focus your skills around your chosen class. So why did I want to wait? Well not choosing a class right away had some benefits too. Most people did not know this and chose the class as early as possible but I imagine even if most knew of the benefit, they would still likely choose the class early. The benefit was that when you were offered classes later, they would be more based on the way your character was proceeding. Whether you had special titles, abilities, or special skills, would all be taken into account by The System when it offered you a class and the chance of getting a rare or even legendary class was much higher.
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Jimmy asked me why I had increased the attributes as I had. He was telling me to increase the strength but ultimately, he understood why I did what I did. He may have been new to this world, but he knew how to survive in a world that was set up like a video game. He didn’t get elected the game leader Four years in a row back home amongst his fellow gamers clan because he was a noob. Granted that game was more like warcraft but similar rules applied when it came to gaming. And if you knew how to rock out with one game, others pretty much just fell in your lap after a minute.
With the increase in endurance and stamina, I felt a new sense of rejuvenation. It was like having a double expresso kick in suddenly.
I wanted to get started on practicing my new Magic projectile spell tonight but first I decided to bring forth the description of the new spells.
Mass Sleep
Level: 1
Cost: 100 MP
Cast time: 3 seconds
Duration: 10 minutes + 1 minute/each Intelligence point
Cooldown Period: 30 seconds
Effect: Puts one or more individuals to sleep. Affects 1 individual per level of the caster for a maximum total level of the target(s) together to be equal to intelligence of the caster.
Magic Projectile
Level: 1
Cost: 50 MP
Cast time: Instant
Duration: n/a
Cooldown Period: 5 seconds
Effect: May Imbue a small stone or metal with Mana and shoot it as a projectile towards the target. Dexterity determines the chance to hit. May Imbue 1 small stone or metal/level of caster. Damage done is equal to Intelligence of the caster.
These two spells were a great start. My high intelligence made the damage of the projectile significant enough to take out small monsters from each projectile. Plus, at level 4 I would have 4 of them at a time. And I could cast them every 5 seconds turning me essentially into a pistol. The bad part was that it would require me to carry around stones. And I needed to find stones that were hard enough to be effective. The other issue was the size as it was not easy to find small stones everywhere and then have to carry them around with me.
I wonder if I carried too many stones, would the curse of the coin take effect still and make a bunch of them disappear. I figured likely not as they were just stone and wouldn’t be considered ‘wealth’ exactly. I was able to find an area on Demira’s grounds that contained a lot of pebbles around a tree. I hoped there wasn’t a sentimental reason for keeping them there but at least for the time being he had a huge supply of ammo.
The mass sleep was also great as it could affect a lot of people as I increased in levels myself. With my high intelligence once again helping tremendously in the number of total levels of the targets I could cast it on.
Both spells were Level 1 spells. Spells could go from level 0 through 5. Level 0 spells were just the most basic minimal effect spell that were taught to beginner mages as a way to get them stronger. Level 1 spells had the potential to be good over time but were weak early on. As the levels got higher in spells, the effect got much stronger. Their cost proportionally got much bigger too. Level 5 spells for example could be strong enough to even cause damage to armies or highly ascended individuals. The level of a spell that anyone could learn depended on their own level as a caster and their intelligence.
I cast the spell Magic Projectile while holding the stones in my palm. I focused the mana into the stones. It failed the first several times. I tried then to just hold a single stone and focus on one stone instead of all three. After a few more times, the stone finally started to take on a bright glow and lifted a few inches off my palm. I wasn’t certain how to aim the projectile. He focused on the stone some more and then visualized the tree about ten feet in front of me. I wanted to see how accurate the aim would be prior to trying for longer distances.
The stone flew like a bullet through the air and struck the tree right smack in the middle. At first, I tried to aim just for the tree and when I had that better controlled, I used my knife to carve out targets with a bulls eye in the middle like on a dart board.
I continued for hours only stopping when my mana ran out and then I would sit and meditate until it would regenerate. In between meditation I also focused on trying to read the glyphs on the coin. The trick with them was not that they just needed to be read but read without looking at the coin. And the coin was to be held on your forehead symbolic of the third eye of Amalya.
A lot of people knew of Amalya but there were many facts that were left out over time or changed through the years. Even about a hundred years ago when I had heard of the Story of this goddess, there were many things missing in various texts dedicated to her. I only learned of it as I soaked up knowledge and books like a sponge in those days. It’s true that she was the goddess of Mana and Magic but what was not known was how she came to develop such strength in those. She had started off as a Half-Elf mortal several thousand years back and although she was a powerful sorceress, she couldn’t ascend past a certain point. Only after many years of research and meditation, she developed the ability to open her ‘third’ eye. Not so much an actual physical eye but more of a metaphorical eye that existed in her mind. This was what let her develop control over mana and overtime magic. Some of her earlier worshipers would even draw a symbolic eye on their own forehead but overtime this was forgotten.
I wasn’t sure exactly how to activate the coin. I knew there was another secret to it besides the hidden quest that I got. Many of the texts had mentioned that there was a hidden ability associated with the coin and I’m sure they were talking about more than just the stat boost and the spell. The glyphs on the coin were done in arcane and I was able to just barely read them now. Even though they were done in arcane, there was an elven component to it which is likely what confused many of the other people that may have read it.
On one side was a chant or a poem of some sort. On the other, there was one part that stood out to me the most and it said “Powerful insight” etched at the bottom half. Or at least that’s what most would have read it as. The top half on the same side, said ‘With sight become.’ I think most would have thought that the coin if worshipped would give them powerful insight perhaps. Or at least, the ones that were willing to take on the curse. But I suspect that since its of elven tongue origin, it likely says “Sight comes with” on top and “with Power in Sight”. A sentence that probably wouldn’t make much sense to most unless you know that Amalya gained her power when she opened her Third eye. And with that she developed Power.
I had to memorize the glyphs language precisely to be able to repeat so I continued to repeat them to myself while reading off the coin. The language itself was difficult to understand and having to do it without being able to look at the coin would take some practice. I also needed to repeat it about three times as was the custom in enacting certain enchantments. Each time would also have to be perfect so not to mess up the enchantment. Just needed to keep practicing until I had it down perfectly.