After Liza handed two of her Common Ranked Tutorial Skill Crystals to Sam, she activated the first for herself.
Congratulations! You have found a Common Ranked Tutorial Skill Crystal.
Tutorial Skill Crystals may be utilized to teach you one of the following Common Skills, provided you have an unused Skill Slot.
Identify – This skill will allow you to identify monsters and their levels.
Analyze – This skill will allow you to Identify any Magic Spells, barriers, or items that you encounter.
Dodge – Once per hour per rank at No cost, you can dodge any attack of equal or less Rank. Additionally, your normal chance to dodge is increased by one for every rank in this skill.
Inventory, Common - You have been granted a dimensional storage area that may hold up to 10 slots worth of equipment.
Each slot may hold up to 5 pounds of a single hand-sized item. Multiple Slots may be required for larger items. The number of slots required for any specific item is based on its weight.
Items summoned from your Inventory will appear either in your hand or on the ground in front of you, as you desire.
Regardless of the weight of the items you carry, they do not increase your weight.
Eye of Eris, Common – Range: 10 Feet. This is a 360-degree spherical perception skill. You may now perceive everything within 10 feet of you. This Skill Negates all Levels of Stealth, though Incorporeal Opponents that are also invisible may not be detected.
WARNING: Each rank of this skill multiplies the current range by 10. If any of the following attributes: Perception, Wisdom, and Intelligence are lower than the current range, you will suffer information overload and receive the debuff – Distracted
If any of the following attributes, Perception, Wisdom, or Intelligence, are lower than the current range by more than half, you will suffer information overload and receive both the debuffs: Distracted and Pain-Racked.
To utilize the Tutorial Skill Crystals, you must have a Skill Slot available.
Note, Tutorial Crystals may NOT be utilized to increase the Rank of Common Skills.
Liza used the first crystal to learn Inventory, Common, and the second crystal to learn Eyes of Eris. Then she touched one of the Uncommon, Skill Upgrade Crystals.
You have found a Skill Upgrade Crystal, Uncommon. Unlike Tutorial skill Crystals, Normal Skill Crystals can be utilized to increase any currently known skill up to the rated rank of the Crystal as long as the skill to be upgraded is one Rank lower and your Core is of the same level or higher.
Would you like to use the Skill Upgrade Crystal, Uncommon now, Yes or No?
She used the first Uncommon upgrade to increase her Inventory to the Uncommon rank and then the second crystal to increase Eyes of Eris to the Uncommon rank. That left her with two unused Skill Slots. When she was done, she looked over at Sam, who was looking back at her, “All done?”
“I am,” Sam said; I already had Inventory to Uncommon rank, so I picked up Eyes of Eris at Common rank. My attributes can’t handle the Uncommon Rank of that skill so I increased Shadow Step from Common to Uncommon with that upgrade crystal. Then I picked up Identify and increased it to Uncommon. I figure being able to know what something might be a good thing.
“That’s a good idea. I don’t have Identify. How many Skill Slots do you have left now?” Liza asked.
“Just one,” Sam answered.
“I have two,” Liza said.
“It doesn’t seem like we get a lot of Skill Slots,” Sam said
“No, it doesn’t, which means we should probably hold onto them for now. Let’s pick up the cash Connor left for us and then head up to the church.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I think we can both make it there. One question: Can you use your Shadow Step up to 10 feet for just one stamina and one mana?” Sam asked.
“Yep. And I can step up to 100 feet for just 10 mana and 10 stamina,” Liza said.
“Me Too. How The SYSTEM treats the differences between Ranks…I mean the woman you shoved into the door frame. Did you mean to do that?”
Liza looked a bit sheepish, “Yes and no. Yes, I meant to kill her. No, I didn’t mean to have her skull crunch the door frame and end up with it halfway through her brain. My strength was a bit much, for sure.”
“When we get a chance, we’re going to have to test out our strengths and learn to pull our punches if we don’t want to stand out too much,” Sam said.
“Agreed. Hopefully, Connor will find a way to get us back to where we belong so we can kick some slaver ass.”
“Once last question: Did your Mana Regeneration go up and then come back down as we passed Hoover Dam?”
“Yeah.”
Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, “Okay, so as long as we limit mana use, we should be fine because it will regenerate. If we need it to regenerate quicker, though, we know of two locations it will. Well, three locations.”
“Three, where is the third,” Liza asked.
“The first is Mount Kimball near Tucson. The Second is Hover Damn. The third is near Tonopah, Nevada. I passed through there when I headed this way to find you.”
So, these Mana Oasis, as you call them, appear in various places all over the world,” Liza asked.
“Not sure, but if we’re on the run and need to take full advantage of our abilities, we have a location we can flee to.”
“Good to know. Let's make Tonopah our emergency backup location if we get separated,” Liza said.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Sam said with a smile as she pointed at the money Connor had left them, “Let’s pick up this money and get going. We have a taxi to call and a ride to catch,” Sam said.
Liza reached down and placed the five hundred thousand dollars Connor had left for her in her inventory. Sam did the same with his half of the million dollars. They both activated Stealth and left the house through the back door. While they might have left evidence in the home, such as a hair or skin cell sample, Liza was pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to identify them for quite a while to come.
As they made their way to the front of the house and then north along the street, Sam stayed within 10 feet of Liza so he could see her with Eyes of Eris. As they were walking up to the third house up the road, Liza detected no one within 100 feet and noticed an area that looked to be a blind spot for the security cameras for one of the homes they were passing.
Liza stepped into the blind spot, followed by Sam, and dropped Stealth, as did Sam. Then she stepped back onto San Felipe Dr and continued to head north. Anyone wondering where they had come from wouldn’t know if they came from inside the house or how long they’d been there as they could have arrived from the road on the backside of the property.
“We should be good now. Let's get to that church and then go up to Las Vegas,” Liza said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Sam agreed.
***
Almost immediately after takeoff, Connor felt Liza and Sam drop out of the range of Eyes of Eris. Now that he was underway, the first thing he had to think about was how much mana he had to make new spells. Currently, his Mana Regeneration was back down to Eight Mana Per Turn. His Skill Elemental Adaption was reducing his Mana Regeneration by One Mana per Turn, as was Force Barrier. Stealth reduced his mana by Ten Mana per Turn for a net loss of four per turn. At that rate, he would have spent about 4,320 mana by the time they reached their destination. That was unacceptable.
Connor cast his spell Control Technological Device and checked to see if there were any cameras in the cargo compartment. There weren’t, which put his mind at ease. Connor deactivated Stealth, which gave him a net gain of six mana per turn. With a maximum mana of 3,352 and a current mana reserve of 19,199, the only thing that would limit his ability to create spells was his mana pool. For now, if he wanted to utilize the time he had efficiently, he could make up to 19 Uncommon rank spells for 1,000 mana a piece or one Rare ranked spell and nine uncommon spells if he just utilized the reserve mana to do so. Of course, he could make 33 common spells or three uncommon and three common spells with his normal mana pool. If he was earning six mana every 10 seconds, that was 36 mana every minute, 360 mana every 10 minutes, or 2160 per hour. Over three hours, that was 6,480. So, he could create nine uncommon spells and seven common spells over the next three hours and still have his mana reserve, which he really wanted to hold onto just in case.
Each uncommon spell would take up two Spell Slots. Each common spell would only take up a single Spell Slot. With 248 unused Spell Slots, the 25 he’d use over the next three hours wouldn’t be too bad. Now the question was, What kind of spells did he want? Also, if form followed function, the higher rank a spell was, the more mana it required to cast, so he needed some versatile low-rank spells that he could use to make their lives easier. Uncommon spells would probably cost 100 mana to cast, which, at his current rate of regeneration, would take approximately four minutes to regain the mana just to cast one. Granted, he could cast them a few times, but once his mana was gone, it was gone. He could use uncommon spells with his mana pool, but if he was low on mana, he might run into some problems.
Connor thought about all the spells he’d seen in the games he’d played, and one of his favorite low-level and definitely over-powered spells came to mind, Sleep. Connor meditated for a minute and then activated his skill, Malleable Spells. He focused on a common spell that would put his target to sleep.
Unfettered Status Noted
SYSTEM Link established.
Searching Common Spell Database
Spell: “Sleep, Common” meets the criteria of the requested spell.
Requirements to learn Spell:
100 Mana
One free Spell Slot.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Sleep, Common.”
Sleep
Required Materials: None
Range: 10 Feet
Mana Cost: 10
Duration of successful: 10 Turns
Choose a single living target within 10 feet. By the force of your will, you can overcome your target and force them into a deep sleep for 10 Turns. This is a test of Wills. Your Willpower is compared to the targets.
If your willpower is more than double the targets, they will immediately fall asleep.
If your Willpower is less than double but greater than the target's willpower, they must make a willpower resistance check or fall asleep. If your Willpower is less than that of your targets, the Spell has no effect.
Targets affected fall into a deep, almost Coma-like state. Even minor damage won’t wake them up. A single attacks that inflict more than 50% of their maximum hit points will automatically wake up the target. Repeated minor wounds will not, even unto the point of death.
If the target falls asleep, once the duration of the spell has expired, the target will transfer into normal sleep and may wake or be woken up normally.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Available Spell Slots: 247 of 267
Nice! This version of sleep was only a single target, but with a willpower of 1,690, he would be able to put any Common and Uncommon rank individuals to sleep with a thought. The range was crap, but his Stealth skill made this a handy spell.
So, what next? He quickly looked over his Common Spells. He had Magical Bolt, Force Dagger, Light, Hack, Create Food, Create Water, Sleep (Common), and the Ritual: Mana Battery, Common. Connor considered the various spells he’d seen in multiple games, and three beneficial spells came to mind. All three spells conjured creatures. That begged the question, could he conjure things? Which one first, though, Find Familiar, Mount, or Unseen Servant?
The ability to get a mount might be nice and possibly something he would need when they returned to the other world, but he could fly with the power of his mind, so that spell wouldn’t be helpful now. Find Familiar? He had an idea that spell wouldn’t be a common spell, or if there were a common-ranked version, there was probably a higher-ranking version of the spell as well. Besides, if he was going to get a familiar, he wanted something like a dragon, golem, or something equally cool. He’d wait and try for either an uncommon or rare rank version of the spell. That left Unseen Servant as a possible spell to look for.
Connor meditated for a minute and then focused on a common spell that would summon a small invisible creature or construct to act as his servant.
Unfettered Status Noted
SYSTEM Link established.
Searching Common Spell Database
Spell: Wizard Hands meets the criteria of the requested spell.
Requirements to learn Spell:
100 Mana
One free Spell Slot.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Wizard Hands.”
Wizard Hands
Required Materials: None
Range: 10 Feet
Mana Cost: 10
Upkeep: 1 mana per turn
Duration. While Maintained.
This spell creates a pair of invisible hands that act as if they were your regular hands. Control of Wizard Hands is automatic. Wizard Hands act as another set of hands to the Wizard and will remain with the Wizard while maintained. Each hand can lift up to 25 pounds and can be utilized in combat, though doing so requires an action and an expenditure of stamina to do so.
If used to strike an opponent, a Wizard hand will inflict one point of damage. They do not receive the caster's Strength Bonus.
Not a thinking servant, but an extra set of hands could be nice in certain circumstances. He quickly cast the spell. The hands were invisible, but he could see them easily with the Eyes of Eris. When he chose not to pay the upkeep cost, the hands vanished after one turn. The initial 10 mana allowed the hands to stick around for only one turn. Good to know.
While he was testing his new Wizard Hands spell, Connor thought about his next spell. Divination spells were useful, and one that would be extremely useful would be something that could detect magic. Of course, there was a Detect Magic spell, and he soon added it to his Spell List.
Detect Magic
Required Materials: None
Range: 100 Feet
Mana Cost: 10
Duration. Instant
When Detect Magic is cast, any magical item, object, or active spell within range and eyesight will glow for one turn. This spell does not determine what type of spell or effect is active; it is just that there is magic present.
Another useful low-level spell that he remembered was copy. That spell might have some physical requirements, though. Besides a copy spell, he had a few other ideas. He’d like a spell that could create scrolls or magical books so he could share some of the spells he had with others. Maybe a spell to create spell crystals? Obviously, he’d probably need a crystal of some type, so a spell to help find gems and crystals would be nice.
A spell to find gems or crystals would need to have some range to it. So, it would need to be Rare or Advanced. No, Master Rank would be the best for that spell if the ranges of spells increased by ten for each rank. To learn a Master-ranked spell would require a million mana, though. Shit, if he sat on Hoover Dam, it would take his normal Mana Regeneration rate of 160 mana per turn just over 17 hours to generate. If he wanted to create such a spell he needed to create some mana batteries first before he tried to make that spell.
A spell to create Common Spell Crystals, though, could be useful, and he could probably find gems or crystals easily enough. A quick clearing of the mind, focus of intent, and a new spell, though this one ended up being uncommon rank.
Unfettered Status Noted
SYSTEM Link established.
Searching Common Spell Database
No Spell matching desire effect was noted
Searching Uncommon Spell Database
Spell: “Create Common Spell Crystal” meets the criteria of the requested spell.
Requirements to learn Spell:
1,000 Mana
Two free Spell Slots.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Create Common Spell Crystal.”
Create Common Spell Crystal
Required Materials: Medium size Crystal or Gem
Range: None
Mana Cost: 100
Duration. Permanent
With Create Common Spell Crystal, you can imbue a medium-sized crystal or gem with the knowledge to learn a common ranked spell that you know. Once created, the Spell Crystal may be utilized by another to learn the spell imbued into the Crystal so long as the individual trying to learn the spell has one free Spell Slot.
That was exactly what he needed, Nice! Of course, he needed to find crystals and gems, but he could do that. The next spell he needed was something he could cast on another person so they could breathe and stay comfortable when he put them in a force bubble with him.
The next spell was also Uncommon rank.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Sphere of Environmental Protection.”
Sphere of Environmental Protection
Required Materials: None
Range: Self or Touch
Mana Cost: 100
Upkeep Cost: 1 per Turn, Paid by Target.
Duration. Until Upkeep isn’t paid.
When cast, the target is surrounded by a 10-foot diameter bubble of air that provides a breathable atmosphere and maintains the optimum temperature for the target. Others within the radius of the spell are also protected by it.
Note: There is no physical aspect to this spell. If cast underwater, the target will fall to the bottom of the body of water. The bubble of air stays centered on the target. It is not buoyant unto itself.
Note: While active, the target is immune to Gas —or liquid-based attacks that attempt to suffocate it or deliver a toxin or poison by inhalation.
That would do nicely. The last spell he was going to make before he gave his mana a chance to regenerate was something to heal himself and others with. The Environmental Sphere of Protection would allow people to survive the lack of oxygen and low or high temperatures, but if someone were hurt, he didn’t have anything for that, so how about a spell that healed people?
Connor meditated, focused, and was rewarded with a new spell.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Healing I.”
Healing I
Required Materials: None
Range: Self or Touch
Mana Cost: 10
This spell allows you to heal yourself or another. Each application of this spell will heal one hit point of damage. This spell will stop bleeding and fix cuts and scrapes. It will not heal broken bones. This spell may be utilized on the same target multiple times but will become ineffective when used on someone with full hit points.
This spell would come in quite helpful. He might even be able to save someone’s life, but he wouldn’t be able to mend bones. Maybe the Uncommon version would allow him to? Well, he’d just spent 2,400 mana. It was time to take a break while his mana was restored. Then, he could unlock Healing II. Connor relaxed into pure meditation and relaxed.
It was boring down in the cargo compartment, but with his Force Barrier chair and Environmental Adaption active, he was pretty comfortable, a little too comfortable. While he waited, he made sure to listen to the people on the plane, but for the most part, they were quiet.
After an hour, he unlocked Healing II.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Healing II.”
Healing II
Required Materials: None
Range: Self or Touch
Mana Cost: 100
This spell allows you to heal yourself or another. Each application of this spell will heal 50 Hit Points and any broken bones the target might have. This spell may be utilized on the same target multiple times but will become ineffective when used on someone with full hit points.
If more hit points are healed than the target's maximum hit points, the excess is lost.
As he finished learning Healing II, Connor wondered if there was a spell that would help him regenerate Mana. Conor mediated and then focused on his desire. He needed the ability to provide him with a location that had 100% Mana Saturation.
Unfettered Status Noted
SYSTEM Link established.
Searching Common Spell Database
No Spell matching desire effect is available
Searching Uncommon Spell Database
No Spell-matching desired effect is available.
Searching Rare Spell Database
Spell: “Astral Pocket” meets the criteria of the requested spell.
Requirements to learn Spell:
10,000 Mana
Would you like to spend 10,000 Mana from your Mana Reserve to acquire the Rare Spell “Astral Pocket”? Yes or No?
Connor chose “Yes.”
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell “Astral Pocket.”
Astral Pocket
Range: 10 feet plus Special
Mana Cost: 1,000
Upkeep Cost: None
Duration. Up to 10 Hours
This spell allows you to create a portal into a unique Astral Pocket that is attached but separate from the Astral Plane. This pocket dimension is a 100-foot diameter sphere. Inside, you will find twilight lighting in an open sphere where you will enter through a portal at the center. Upon entering, you will float at the center, though you may move as you will within the Astral Pocket.
An Atmosphere compatible with the caster is provided and refreshed, and the temperature is kept at a comfortable 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Items left in the Astral Pocket will remain until removed.
Entry into and out of a portal is made through the portal created when the spell is cast. The portal can be closed from the inside. If closed, the door in the material plane vanishes, but an anchor to the Astral Pocket remains where it was created. When reopened from the inside, the door to the Astral Pocke will reappear where it vanished from.
Note: Portals to other planes are tied to the magical ley lines of the plane they are created on. As such, Portals opened in moving vehicles will lock to the location created within the network of ley lines, not the car they were made in.
Mana Reserve 9,199 of 100,000
That had cost a lot of his Mana Reserve. Granted, he had a way to get mana back quick now, maybe. He still had to test it out, but with the note that the spell had, activating it in this plane while flying would be a terrible idea. So, now, it was time to relax, read over his new spells a couple more times, and wait until Mr. Diego made it to wherever he was going. To be able to follow him and not be seen once they arrived, Connor needed to replenish some of the Mana Reserve he’d just utilized to get Astral Pocket. With that in mind, Connor relaxed and decided to meditate while he waited.
Two hours later, they came in for a landing at Aeropuerto de Cuernavaca. Connor had transferred the 4,320 mana overflow he received into his Mana Reserve, which brought it back up to 13,519. That should be more than enough to follow this asshat. Connor relaxed in the cargo compartment until Mr. Diego exited the aircraft. Then, he activated Stealth and Flight. A quick Shadow Stepped to a point fifty feet above the plane, and he was ready to follow this guy. At a net loss of 6 mana per turn, he could remain stealthed and flight-capable for at least nine hours, much longer if he tapped his Mana Reserve.
***
“Diego just landed,” the voice on the other end of the phone said.
“Bring him here. Send the others the plant,”
“As you wish, Senior Perez.”
Juan Perez waved the man away and turned back to his computer screen. His contacts within the local police force up north had sent him a picture of the two people who had been at their ambush, a man and a woman who didn’t show up on any files anywhere, which was saying something. He switched to the next image, which showed Conrad Baker, who had a one-million-dollar win at the slot machine. The team that had been sent to get him had disappeared. The snuff team they had in Boulder City had also gone offline. Over twenty people had vanished in less than a day. Still, the first two teams to disappear had been successful in their missions before they disappeared.
The reports he was going over were very clear: no bodies had been recovered save the bodies of the victims. The politician they’d been after had been killed, but the second part of his contract for the mother and daughter wasn’t handled…yet. He had more teams to send after them, but it would be at least a week before things surrounding the politicians would calm down enough for him to target the women again. He’d been hired to send a message to the Americans; that was what he was going to do. If all of the men and women he’d lost were dead, that would be a significant loss to his organization north of the border. He did have assets in California he could call on, though.
As he reviewed the information he had, he was hopeful that Diego would have more answers. What he really wanted to know, though, was where Conrad Baker had come from. He would have to thank his counterpart in Las Vegas for the information they’d provided thus far. Even so, it was still lacking.
Juan walked over to his bar and poured himself a drink. When Diego arrived a half hour later, Juan had reviewed the information he had repeatedly and still couldn’t figure out where they’d gone wrong. Everything appeared to be working as he’d planned right up until the RV stopped. Then, the first team disappeared, followed almost immediately by the second team. The third team in the hotel disappeared next, followed by the snuff team. Juan couldn’t blame Diego for bailing on the operation; he would have to. There were too many unknowns happening to quickly for him to have stayed around.
Still, Diego might have some new information.
Suddenly, the computer he’d been using to review the information started flipping through pictures and screens. He tried to stop it by hitting a couple of keys before he finally unplugged the computer from the outlet, and it went dead. Juan heard the door to his study open as Diego walked inside and saw him holding the power cord to his computer.
“Everything okay, Boss?”
Juan looked from the power cord to Diego before he set the cord down and leveled his gaze at Diego, “What happened?”
“I don’t….” Diego started to say before he pitched over where he stood and fell to the ground.
Juan was about to call out when he felt something settle over his mind, and the world went dark.
***
Connor walked over to the computer and plugged it back in before he retook control of it. The hard drive had a lot of information, including information about Liza, Sam, and himself. With Eyes of Eris, he kept track of everyone in the estate he was in while he stripped Diego and Mr. Perez of all of their weapons and then used some of the zip ties he’d picked up from the other assholes he’d killed to secure their hands and feet in front of them. Finally, he gagged both of them. He’d come back to them after he finished going over the information on Mr. Perez’s computer. He had to admit that the Sleep spell worked beautifully.
It had been incredibly easy to follow Diego to this location, even with the course changes and underground passages he’d used to change cars. Connor’s skill Eyes of Eris had a range of 10,000 feet. As long as he remained within range, Connor never lost track of Diego.
When Diego finally pulled up to Juan Perez's house, he accessed his computer remotely and went through the files until he unplugged the computer. Then he popped in and hit both with Sleep. They’d be out for a little while. If they woke up before he was done reviewing the files, he’d just put them back to Sleep until he was ready for them.