Unknown Location, Near the Town of Eldor. Troug, 7th.
Olea Munroe
First off, I needed a plan. Yep, a plan, easy as can of cake, piece of pie. Pie… Anyway, I need to address the possible Skill, Spell, and Attribute upgrades available to me so I can discover this divine path forward.
Calling the skills list to mind, I began debating on which to invest in first. My first thought came in the form of investing in Command, but I figured it would only take one slip up for everyone to realize I was puppeteering their friends around. And a limit of single word orders would make it hard to utilize, which would also clear out my mana pool rather quickly. Other options… Let’s just look at my healing school of spells.
Piety - Rank 3
* Armor – Rank 1
* Command – Rank 1
* Conjure Elemental Spirit – Rank 1
* Create Food – Rank 1
* Create Water – Rank 1
* Cure Wounds – Rank 2
* Detect Aura – Rank 1
* Detect Magic – Rank 1
* Dispel Magic – Rank 1
* Protection from Evil – Rank 1
* Vigor – Rank 2
* Water Breath – Rank 1
* Water Walk – Rank 2
* Wind Walk – Rank 3
The most obvious choice was sitting there as the conjuring spell. If I remembered correctly, it would also take a great deal of my skill points as I would need to level up its prerequisites; Dispel Magic, Create Water, and Command. And then I would need to also invest in Protection from Evil and Cure Wounds as they are both prerequisites for Dispel Magic. Though looking at it again I did realize that Cure Wounds was already at the needed level two, so I would only need to improve it if I wanted to bring Dispel Magic to rank four.
“Oh crap.” I might have said that aloud as I realized I would also need to bring Piety to rank four to put an endcap on that last spell.
“You say something, Ollie?” came Derek’s voice from the other side of our not so private cage. Could not a girl quietly curse her luck without worrying about the spectators.
It didn’t help that they had all been wearing puppy dog eyes of thankfulness that moment they finished their conjured food. Even the girls were looking at me with a hint of worry, they thought their vending machine was broken and they would have no more snowballs. I missed snowballs, coconut, and marshmallow goodness. And the chocolate!
“It’s fine, all good.” I said to my semi-loyal worshippers, “I’m just trying to decide on what spells to learn to aid in my escape plan so I can take over the world someday. Can’t afford to die in a cage or get shipped off as meat for some uber-evil scum-bucket who just wants a pretty elf to sit in a corner till they are needed.”
The girls all kind of cringed, no doubt thinking about the latter part of my statement, maybe they had not yet thought so far ahead as to imagine what was going to be waiting at the end of this train of torment. Quinn looked to be losing a little more of her sanity as I watched her worry lines increase in depth. Children, even almost adult children should not have to suffer pre-mature wrinkles from worrying this much. What the hell.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said simply, “I’ll be getting us out of here sooner or later. We aren’t going to be sold off to some slimy shits this time around.”
Malory finally voiced a thought by asking me, “What did you mean by learning spells miss?”
“I meant I am looking to get a shiny spell made into a shinier spell so I can maybe break us out of here and get the bad guys.” I wasn’t so sure of how it was so hard to understand such a simple thing, but here we were.
“I don’t think they will be letting us learn new spells here, I doubt they would be willing to teach us anything, really. Did you have a teacher before being brought here, were you waiting to learn the skills until you knew for sure what path you wanted to take?”
It was as she was half-way through her spiel that I remembered that most, or nearly every living person needed a teacher to learn anything beyond the absolute basics.
“I have a question!” I said as I raised my hand, looking straight at Malory.
The girl looked slightly surprised at my actions, but nodded slowly as she moved her hands in a vague circular way. That must be my cue to continue.
“How does someone become a teacher, like can anyone teach anyone new spells and stuff? Is it restricted by age or rank or something?” I asked, a bit surprised that I had never really given it much thought before. I must be progressing as a person to be so forthcoming with my ignorance, win!
Malory and the others in the room just looked at me as if I was some alien being, which honestly, I could totally fit that bill being that I was born in a completely different reality, or universe, or something. Oops, I should have asked TK when she was being a pest in the between place.
It was Derek who spoke first. “Anyone can teach someone else new skills and stuff. You just need to be able to use the skill yourself. My own Da’ taught me Combat and Bludgeon.”
“Your dad did… huh.” I guess it was not unheard of for fathers to teach their children how to fight, but if this were the case, what was stopping me from teaching all these little kids some new spells as well. Though, admittedly they did not have as many skill points as they would need to learn something incredibly powerful. The thought of dozens of kids and teens summoning elemental monsters to murder the kidnapper folks was quite humorous as it played out in my head.
That thought also had me thinking that I should start investing some training time into the kids back on the streets in South Jaga, they could do amazing things if I gave them some cool new skills.
“More advanced skills are rarer as most people with advanced skills and magic are less widespread, unless you join the temple and learn there. Most of the priest teach anyone who asks to learn basic healing.” Said Quinn, dropping a little more information for me.
Mouse piped up with her little chipper voice, “My mum taught me how to use a knife, got me to learn Slash and help in the kitchen.”
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Using these skills to perform chores with a little more efficiency had never really crossed my mind before. Odd, I liked to think of myself as quite the corner cutter.
“That still doesn’t explain how you planned to get new skills and stuff to escape.” Cut in Malory, so much for changing the topic.
“Meh, I guess it doesn’t. I’m going to go sit in the corner over there for a while, feel free to ignore me for a while.” I turned about and went to the opposite side of our round cage, corner may not have been the best word to use, but I was fine with that.
I heard them talking about me strangely for a few moments before my mind shunted away all the distractions, not something I can usually do. It might be the cage helping me keep my focus, it’s hard to get distracted when you can’t physically go anywhere.
Twenty-four skill points were burning a hole in my brain, and it was time to alleviate the pressure. Well, no there was no actual pain, but I was getting an itch to spend them. Not that kind of thing… Not today, at least.
I started by dropping eight to polish off my Piety skill. Not going to lie, it did hurt a little to see all those points go for just one skill. Moving on! I then dumped two points into Create Water, one point into Protection from Evil, two points into Command, two additional points into Dispel Magic, and finally three points into Conjure Elemental Spirit. Eighteen points gone in a blink, sadness striking on cue. I may have wept a little, but then I saw the improvements.
Rank Four: The gods are proud this day as you have reached the final mortal rank of Piety, angels sing and demons lament at your accomplishment! You will now be able to learn any spell or skill up to the fourth rank. All spells will come more easily to you, thus lowering the time needed for caster by a small degree. You will more quickly recover from the negative effects of mana depletion. Regeneration of mana is increased; regeneration of all resources will also be increased while you are within a place of worship. Gain a passive ability to vaguely detect the driving intentions of others through careful observation.
First up was Piety. Getting some nice regeneration bonuses and avoiding that crappy debuff for overspending are both very welcome. That part about spell casting time was different, I suppose I had never really tried casting spells back-to-back yet, something to pay attention to. I was also wondering at the new passive, I liked skills that required no upkeep investitures, I really like them.
Rank Two: Targets of this spell will now need to cast two saving throws upon your use of the spell, one throw to thwart your command, and a second to determine the source of the spell.
Rank Three: Target area for using Command is now expanded. Area of Effect is determined by Level, Wisdom, and Charisma. Spell can now be channeled to increase range; the spell will be applied after the channeling period has ended.
And then this for Command, making it into some AoE mind control type thing seemed kind of frightening, but to see that I might be able to cast it and not get caught quite as easily when I inevitably failed to do such a thing was a wonderful thing to remember.
Rank Two: Your water can now be used as a Reagent in your spells, as it now possesses a heightened level of Water Essence. Water produced has been doubled, though the caster may choose to limit the amount with a thought upon casting.
Rank Three: The amount of water you can call forth has been doubled, yet again. The user retains the ability to limit the amount created with this spell. Your created water can now provide a minor increase to regeneration for a time limited by the level of the caster. Grants a small measure of control over the temperature of the water created.
Create Water looked genuinely nice. I’d be trying that soon, very soon. If it could get me some nice hit water for a scrub-down or something very cold to drink I would be quite happy. The old stuff was fine, but it was remarkably close to lukewarm. It seemed as if I could create quite a bit of water now. And right there near the end, more regeneration!
Rank Two: The ability to Dispel Magic is increased. Range and power have increased.
Rank Three: Your ability to Dispel Magic is greatly increased. The user of this spell can now passively intuit the spells that are dispelled when they cast this spell successfully.
As for Dispel Magic, I could see that it had gained a bit more viability and flexibility. I would not be using it anytime soon but having it there would be swell if I ever find myself up against a smart opponent with spells. I wondered if it would work for enchantments.
Rank Two: The field of protection is increased to cover an area around the target of the spell. The spells duration is now increased to equal the casters level in hours.
Rank Three: The spell will now prevent any creature not currently at the level of the caster or above from attacking or bringing harm to the target of the spell, regardless of the target’s actual level.
And then there was this, Protection from Evil, it seemed I would be able to cast it and take better naps in the forest, the light forest. Though I will avoid those in the future if I can help it and just head off to a town for a bed. Why was I thinking about camping out again after all that nonsense in the forest that I had been through… yeah, no. It would help with some fetch quests though, picking berries and the like while remaining unbothered. Wait a minute, this spell probably worked wonders as a pest deterrent, no more mosquitoes! Moving on, stay focused.
Conjure Elemental Spirit: This spell must be cast upon a non-living object which possesses elemental essence. Duration, power, and success of the spell are limited by factors such as available essence, Wisdom, Piety, Level of Caster, as well as a little luck.
Rank Two: Allows the user to form lasting bonds with the spirit summoned, while this will not increase the duration of the summon it will allow the user to reliably summon forth a spirit that they may find themselves more easily in tune with. Grants a small increase in power to the summoned Elemental.
Rank Three: Summoner can now control a larger number of Elemental Spirits. Allows the caster to summon two elementals per rank, this does not allow you to summon more than one Elemental per cast. Elementals are now stronger than previous iterations. Caster can increase the Elementals power by investing twice the mana at the time of casting.
Rank Four: Doubles the time that your Elemental can remain on this plane, though the caster may choose to dismiss their Elemental Summons at will. Elementals are significantly more powerful at this Rank and can be further imbued with the casters own Essence by using their own blood as a supplementary Reagent. Do not be afraid, pain brings power.
And since it had been a while since I had checked I decided to look at its base function as well, I was probably starting to feel the influence of the big-bad there as I learned this spell and had to make sure I had gotten what I thought I had gotten, if that makes sense.
Lots to unpack there, there were quite a varied list of friends I could summon, I could use the word minion, but I think I would eventually offend some greater elemental being and just get smooshed or something. Sticking with nicer terms for my loyal followers. It also seemed that I would be able to summon two different elementals for now, if only I could have been kicked up to the next level to improve my rank, then I would have four friends to summon. If the duration was anything nearing the metric used for other spells it might be safe to assume it was my level worth of hours, though I would need to test that soon so as not to be surprised mid-escape. I was also keen to see to test the extra imbuement and channeled summon abilities. Doubling mana costs though for the spell seemed as if it could be a problem as I only had one hundred seventy-four maximum mana with my regeneration sitting at sixty-four and some change, per hour.
It was at that moment that I caught onto a strange feeling in the air, I felt as if I were being watched. I slowly moved my head from side to side as if surveying my new friends and cellmates until I felt the little tingle in my mind, perhaps from my new passive.
At first, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, just the random guards doing a very random survey of the cages down in this cavern of shared captivity but then my eyes caught the briefest flash of light. A shimmer of torchlight reflecting from the hilt of a blade. There was now a man near the cave entrance wearing all red clothing, and he was focused on little ole me, that or one of the others in my cell. Color me conceited but I was betting that this was all about me.