I ran back into the building and skipped over the obvious mark I left on the concrete floor, then quickly kneeled down. The three SmartMines.exe infused floor is buried around two meters below the marked floor with some air space in between, the hole about a meter plus wide to its half a meter long. I had dug it out using a combination of the Mold Earth and Shape Stone spell. For the final preparations, I once again cast Shape Stone, and took control of the concrete covering the mine's air space and pulled it up into a thick but short wall between me and the hole on the floor.
The two rushing goblins, part blinded by rage, part having the intelligence of a child. Run full speed through the door only to end up missing a step courtsey of the pitfall, then banging into a wall of concrete and falling down the two meters hole on the floor. Needless to say their fall involves having their limbs swinging and splayed out all over the area, upon which, unfortunately for them, three landmines lay in wait.
And that's, how three Goblins met their maker, probably, assuming they go to Goblin heaven or something. The explosion didn't make all that much sound as I made the spell by combining fire and wind that explodes out in a spiral to cause as much damage as possible in an area. Being magical in nature, the inward spiral has no trouble focusing the explosion and sound. Resulting in an explosion that jumps up about 1.5 meters high and about wide enough to wholy encompass an adult human in a burning tornado, while only causing a little bang followed by a suction, FWOOSHH!
I tried my best to return the floor back into how it was, pulling up the two charred corpses along the way. Then I Sneak towards the other one, expecting it to be bleeding to death back at their camp only to find it halfway towards the building instead, leaving a very visible trail of blood. The Goblin remains unmoving as I approach, yet I find it hard to ignore how its eyes move to follow my movements. Standing over the bleeding creature, I ended its misery with my dagger and dragged it back towards the building, leaving it outside with the other two.
Mana Sense tells me that their core lies in their stomach. So I unsheathe my dagger and cut open a stomach above where the spherical blob of mana can be felt, shoved my hand in before I could hesitate, felt around a little then pulled out the core. Had to do that three times, probably need something that can do the harvesting for me. I had to clean myself with a few casts of Unsoil after the deed. Maybe at least get a spell like Mage Hand if it exists, so I don't have to touch them myself… maybe telekinesis…
'Updates, summary please.'
** DING **
Skill level up, Mana Sense 5 > 6
Skill obtained Taunt
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Goblin lv 9 x 1
Goblin lv 7 x 1
Goblin lv 8 x 1
24 syscred and 388 exp awarded
You are now level 3
I stored the three Monster Cores in the repository and checked my profile. A total of six APs to spend, with that one extra point from human's Adaptable trait. Without much thought, I raised Constitution by another three and spread the rest among my mental stats. I've got enough mana for now, but only one life, 'Status.'
** DING **
Name: Zane Fair Prayoga
Specification: Male. Human. Argead.
Level: 3 (213/1000)
Hp: 100 / 148
Mp: 339 / 378
Sp: 110 / 180
Str: 10
Con: 16
Dex: 10
Int: 14
Wis: 14
Wil: 14
Cha: 10
Ap: 0
Syscred: 25544
Fp: 2
Titles: [Mind as old as Time], [Memories of Forever, Forever lost], [Pioneers of Magic], [Prodigy Mage], [Spell Dilettante], [Pristine Peddler]
Traits: Adaptable, Metamorphosible Mana, Immortal Mind, Memory Vault
Skills:
Sneaking 5
Mace Proficiency 3
Inspect 8
Unarmed combat proficiency 1
Meditation 5
Poison Resistance 1
Mana Manipulation 11
Visualization 7
Thrown Weapons Proficiency 1
Dagger Proficiency 4
Mana Sense 6
Artificial Infusion 1
Pain Resistance 5
Fear Resistance 3
Heavy Armor Proficiency 3
Taunt 1
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Map Interface 0
Shared Map (¾) 0
Knowledge Pack 0000000
Spells:
Disinfect - Basic
Unsoil - Basic
Distill - Basic
Light - Intermediate
Coat - Basic
Mend - Basic
Ignite - Basic
Soften - Basic
Wind Arrow - Intermediate
Conjure Flames - Basic
Mold Earth - Early
Magico Disk - Advanced
Conjure Dagger - Basic
Lesser Heal - Basic
Conjure Trilattic Armor - Early
SmartMine.exe - Early
Will-o'-Woe - Early
Novice Repository - Early
Pocket Suspense - Early
Shape Stone - Intermediate
My eyes skim over the titles and traits, noting no change and moving on. Some skills improved, as did some spells. That list is quite the toolset, might need to grind them out someday. Done checking my profile out, I made my way north, remembering to engage my Sneaking skill right before exiting the door.
Along the way, I kept my eyes out for hostiles and clues that the other three Goblins might leave behind.
As expected, after getting about an hour head start, they are far gone. But I kept sneak-walking north, past an abandoned mall on my left, then further yet, almost reaching the nearest train station which should be about a kilometer from the earlier crossroad and still found nothing but splatters of blood and the occasional bony remains.
Stopping in a pangkalan ojek, a base-station of sorts where the local taxi-bikes gather to await customers, meet each other, or take a break, among other things. I sit to consider my options. I can keep going, turn right, or turn back. My eyes wandered around as my mind compares the three choices, when a glimpse of movement catches my attention.
In a small decrepit post on a triangular median strip, which is those small gardens we usually find between lanes. I can spot three hiding Goblins doing a messed up job of hiding, and of keeping watch. First of all, that post roughly has a one by one meter space inside, which is a comfy enough space for one person on their shift, but is definitely not so for three rowdy Goblins. Second, they're getting distracted by each other which leads to. Third, a lot of noise and movements every once in a while.
'Inspect,' x3.
** DING **
Goblin lv 5
Goblin lv 7
Goblin lv 5
Kinda weak, feels so tempting to just get rid of them. But I need to know where they're coming from, which means I would need to camp out. Killing two and letting one run home would give me the answers faster, but would in exchange, alert them of a mysterious hunter. I quietly chuckle at the thought of being the Goblins equivalent if a boogeyman… Which is probably just what everyone calls a goblin hunter.
Well, I don't feel ready to have a bunch of 'em out and about trying to rat me out, so waiting it is. I've spent a few hours since this morning with the announcement and it's now a few hours past noon, feels like way longer than that. While waiting, I decided to do some grinding. First of all would be Mana Sense and Sneaking, which I will do by simply keeping them active. Meditation and Visualization is sadly not an option with how I need to be aware of the Goblins, the weapons skills are also out for the same reason plus the need to stay undetected. Lastly, some are not an option due to how the skill works, which leaves me with Inspect and Artificial Infusion.
I started inspecting random objects all around me, ignoring the System dings and instantly dismissing the results, while pondering how best to experiment with Artificial Infusion. 'Inspect.'
** DING **
Artificial Infusion. Craft your own magic scrolls but with or without the scrolls. Infuse a viable item with a spell, the spell is stored for later use. Triggering the spell consumes mana from the item, insufficient mana will instead consume durability. Maximum infuseable mana is limited by material size and mass.
Finding out the mana limit of an item is gonna be a chore, I just know it. Looking around the area, I can find some rocks on the ground, as well as random objects like plastic cups and spoons, along with various empty wrappers. Size and mass, I'm positive these objects, beside the rocks won't suffice. Making sure to keep giving the Goblins a glance every minute or so, I went and picked up a nearby rock. All notion of grinding Inspect forgotten.
It's a loose fit on my hand, about four, maybe five cm in diameter, if you smooth out the rough shape without losing anything… hmm~, I cast Shape Stone. Instantly feeling the spell move my mana to infuse the rock in my hands, though not willing to waste mana to cast the spell to its maximum effect, I interrupt the process as the rock has been sufficiently infused and move on to shaping it.
** DING **
Ignoring that. I shape the rock into a cube, getting an approximate length of four centimeters… there's really no way to determine any further detail, might as well experiment. I spent a few minutes collecting several rocks and making similar sized cubes by comparing them to each other.
Casting Shape Stone on the rocks doesn't decrease any point of my mana now, the cost probably such a very small number as that my regen offsets the cost. It is a spell made to shape stone in the meters, not the centimeters I'm doing now. 'Updates. Ty.'
** DING **
Shape Stone - Intermediate, mastery expanded and logged
After re-Inspecting the spell, I figured that the gist of it is, probably, that the spell now costs mana to correspond to the amount of stone I'm shaping. And that this change is an extension of its intermediate mastery instead of raising to the next mastery level, might be there's not a big enough change.
About another hour has passed between scouting out the enemy, Sneaking around the vicinity to collect rocks and shaping them into uniform cubes. While the Goblins have been spending the time as they have been so far.
With this last shaping, I end up with four cubes and a tiny leftover I discard on the floor. Raising the rock to eye level between me and the post, I mentally nudge Artificial Infusion, the skill feels like a guide as to how I may cast and store a spell inside an object to keep for later.
For this first one, I decided on Lesser Heal. As having a cost free heal ready in case of an emergency sounds like a good plan. I cast the spell following the steps hinted by the skill, gently allowing the mana to pool inside the stone as if casting the spell, but instantly halting the process just as its about to take effect. Instead the paused spell is allowed to permeate throughout the stone, infusing it into the material, linking them as spell-rock, rock-spell. Cause-rock and effect-spell, Artificial Infusion.
I came out of the trance, and my attention instantly focused on the cube in my hands. The infusion process had only taken a few seconds. The cube lay on my hand looking every bit unassuming, as ordinary as any other rock, besides its shape that is. To my Mana Sense on the other hand, it has a pulsating glow to it. Which on closer look, seem to be a core of some sort that my Mana Sense can feel-sees to be tethering between solid and a figment of the imagination. Coming out of said core are swaying tendrils of mana that spreads and latches on to every millimeter of the material, creating the glow effect. Cool!
How to utilize the creations came to me soon after, which involves activating the core with Mana Manipulation by causing it to pulse, to come alive. Hmm~? deactivating Mana Sense. The cube feels asleep to my Mana Manipulation, like touching a sleeping person and feeling the soft slight movements of their breathing and waking it up is as simple as a slight nudge. Satisfied, I continued grinding Mana Sense.
The rock of Lesser Heal and another two of the uninfused ones went into my repository, which still only consist of the one storage, no need for isolated spaces just yet. The last cube-rock sat on my palm, Lesser Heal took me… maybe eighteen mana with the title discount, lets try twice that. The Goblins seem to quiet down as they fall asleep in discomfort. A few minutes of watching them absentmindedly, while typing on the calculator on my phone and I have the answer for the mana to use on a Magico disk rock.
So, I hold the cube and reactivate the skill, this time infusing enough mana to summon ten disks, which should cost me 35 mana. The process went as it did earlier, only to halt, when the rock crumbled into sand right before completion. All the infused mana dissolves into the air, Huh? I took out another cube and tried 9 disks this time, the last one felt very~ close to completing. This time, the cube-rock held on and allowed the infusion to slumber within.
Elated by the success, I switched the newly infused cube for the last uninfused cube in my repository, only to have to put it right back. Having noticed movements from further north, what seems like a party of five Goblins are slowly approaching the post.