A week and a half after her first encounter with a [Thorn Wolf], Kelsey found herself once again perched in a tree, overlooking one of the sleeping creatures.
[Thorn Wolf - lvl 33]
After more than three dozen battles against these wolves, she had reached level 27, and the fights were becoming much easier. She had finally taken the time to dismantle the first Thorn Wolf she had defeated and found something very intriguing inside.
[Thorn Wolf Core] - Can be used to make earth based magical tools.
The Thorn Wolf Core was a small, brown, and green spherical object that emitted a constant flow of brown earth mana. Since this discovery, she made sure to dismantle all the wolves she killed for their cores just like she had been doing with the rabbits. Once the cores were removed, the bodies of the wolves began to dissolve quite quickly unless she placed the body in her storage.
Kelsey had fought and killed an Elk monster that was level 7. The identification had said it was called a [Horned Elk - lvl 7] and it had two long pointed horns rather than antlers. When she killed and dismantled the creature she had found no core. This discovery made her come to the realization that only monsters with magic had cores.
She had continued to hunt the wolves for both class experience, and to make herself a more experienced fighter. She had been challenging herself by fighting each wolf with one handicap or another to ensure she was constantly improving. She never came as close to death as when she fought the first wolf, but she had not yet managed to defeat one of these wolves without getting hurt at all. That was her final challenge, and it was her plan for today. She searched for a lower-level wolf to give herself the best chance of success. Now that she could see their levels, she found that the wolves ranged from level 30 to level 40.
She also discovered that level wasn’t a perfect indicator of strength for the Thorn Wolves. Their difficulty almost always depended on how they used their earth magic. One of the toughest wolves she had encountered was a level 31 wolf that used its earth magic to create stone vines from the ground, mimicking the ones on its back. The stone vines functioned both defensively and offensively where all of the other wolves she fought always leaned one way or the other. There were a few things that as far as she could tell, all the wolves could do. They could all create thin stone walls, and they could also all shoot stone projectiles in a shotgun pattern. She realized that the stone explosion was the signature attack of the first wolf because she hadn’t seen anything like it since.
In preparation for the fights, she spent an hour or so each day creating various weapons with her new Telekinetic Creation skill. She now had permanent versions of each type of weapon she liked to use. Although she still primarily used the saber she had made, it was reassuring to know she had other weapons as backups. She had also acquired the Weapon Mastery General skill and was becoming somewhat proficient with all kinds of weapons. Thanks to a series of unfortunate events that occurred when fighting one of the wolves, she also acquired the Unarmed Fighting skill, which was a decidedly less enjoyable experience.
Seeing the wolf waking from its nap, Kelsey began preparing her opening attack. She no longer attacked the wolves while they were sleeping; it always led to a worse fight and, if she were being honest, felt a bit unfair. She summoned her saber and created two temporary telekinetic spears. Jumping down from the tree, blade in hand and spears following, she whistled loudly and yelled, "Hey, wolfy, wanna play!?"
The Thorn Wolf spun around to face her, crouching into a fighting stance as the vines on its back bristled, and it began growling at her. Deciding to initiate the battle, Kelsey pointed her blade at the wolf, launching the telekinetic spears directly at its head. As it leaped aside, she teleported next to it and slashed at the monster's neck with her saber. It noticed her just a fraction of a second too late, managing only to partially block the surprise attack with its vines. Despite this, her telekinetic blade carved two long gashes into the wolf's side and back. Before the wolf could counter, Kelsey teleported above it and created a few dozen small, bladed projectiles. She discovered that using the skill to conjure non-permanent objects was much faster and easier than before. Instead of fully visualizing a dagger, sword, or spear, she merely envisioned a vague form of the object, letting the skill complete the process. This approach conserved a significant amount of mental energy, allowing her to concentrate entirely on launching the projectiles, which could certainly be difficult.
She unleashed the newly formed blades at the wolf, simultaneously employing the full force of her Lesser Telekinesis to immobilize the wolf, preventing it from dodging. The effort of restraining a creature of a higher level was immense, but she could manage it in short bursts. As she immobilized the wolf, the small blades inflicted dozens of cuts and stabs into its body. Realizing it was at a disadvantage, the wolf resorted to the same strategy all others had before it, earth magic.
As she descended towards the wolf, she saw four stone pillars rise from the ground around it, with segments of the pillars detaching and hurling towards her. Aware that being hit would mean failing her objective of remaining unharmed, and unable to choose a location teleport in time, she conjured a shield of telekinetic energy in front of her, infusing it with as much mana as possible.
The stone fragments exploded against her shield, causing violent shocks through its structure. The wolf persisted in its assault while Kelsey fought to maintain the shield's integrity. Eventually, her control wavered, and the shield collapsed, allowing one of the stone fragments to break through and hit her Telekinetic Armor. Fortunately, her defenses held, and she managed to teleport behind the wolf. Having yet to take any damage to her health, she reassured herself, Still haven’t taken any damage, I’ve got this!
Once behind the wolf, she could tell that it was nearly out of mana after its excessive overuse of earth magic. At that moment, she knew exactly how to finish this particular fight. She dismissed her saber into storage and, while the wolf attempted to locate her, began creating bladed waves of telekinetic energy. Each wave, over a meter wide and crescent-shaped, was ideal for slicing through strong defenses like the wolf's stone barriers. In just over a second, she had conjured more than half a dozen of these waves and launched them indiscriminately towards the wolf. The wolf, noticing the incoming projectiles, summoned more stone from the ground to protect itself. However, it was too slow, and its defenses were too weak. The energy waves cut through the stone effortlessly and struck the wolf, ripping large sections of vines from the creature's body. Kelsey didn't halt her offensive, continuing to invest hundreds of mana per second into her attacks until she heard the ding in her mind that indicated the end of the fight.
Those telekinetic blades aren’t even that fast. If it had just dodged them instead of trying to block, it may have had a chance at hurting me. That thing’s offensive magic was no joke.
After storing the wolf's body, she sat down in the middle of the clearing, activated Meditation, and started reviewing her notifications from the last week and a half, including the most recent fight.
*ding* Spatial Mage has reached level 19 -> 27 - 80 free stat points have been awarded
*ding* Lesser Telekinetic Armor has reached lvl 9 -> 10 (Maxed)
*ding* Short Range Teleport has reached lvl 8 -> 10 (Maxed)
*ding* Lesser Telekinetic Enhancement has reached lvl 9 -> 10 (Maxed)
*ding* Transfer has reached lvl 7 -> 10 (Maxed)
*ding* Telekinetic Creation has reached lvl 5 -> 9
*ding* Manasight has reached lvl 6 -> 10 (Maxed)
I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but my progress leveling these skills seems quick. All of my original class skills are now maxed at 10, even Spatial Creation is already
level 9. Guess that makes sense since it's probably the skill I use most during a fight. Depending on if the skills can advance in some way, fights could become kind of boring without skill advancements to look forward to.
*ding* You have defeated a [Thorn Wolf - lvl 33]. For defeating an enemy at a higher level
than your own, additional experience is given.
*ding* Spatial Mage has reached level 28 - 10 free stat points have been awarded
*ding* Weapon Mastery has reached lvl 5 -> 6
*ding* Telekinetic Creation has reached lvl 9 -> 10 (Maxed)
Speaking of Telekinetic Creation being nearly finished. It will be somewhat disappointing not seeing a ton of class level advancements after every fight. Oh well, at least I-
[Unique Path Class Advancement Available]
Requirements: Level 25 and All class skills at their maximum level.
Would you like to advance your class?
Yes/No
Wait what? A class advancement? Guess that answers the question of what happens when all your class skills get maxed out. Sweet, this should be fun.
Yes.
[Unique Path Classes Available - 4]
[Spatial Hedge Mage]
The Spatial Hedge Mage began with the Spatial Mage class and has reached this level
while remaining completely self taught.
Requirements:
* Must have reached level 25 in the Spatial Mage class without any outside assistance
* Must have survived alone in the wild for at least one month
* Must have created and selected a new skill without outside assistance
[Telekinetic Savant]
The Telekinetic Savant has taken the Spatial Mage class and focused primarily on the Telekinetic aspects of spatial control.
Requirements:
* Must have earned and selected a new Telekinetic skill
* Must have created over 5000 temporary or permanent objects with Telekinesis
* Must have defeated an enemy at least 15 levels higher than you while primarily using Telekinesis
* Must have the Manasight General skill at level 5 or higher
[Spatial Hunter]
The Spatial Hunter uses her powerful spatial magic to hunt down their enemies, turning predators into prey.
Requirements:
* Must have used Spatial Magic in aid of hunting prey
* Must have prepared tools and weapons with spatial magic
* Must have hunted over 25 monsters of the same species
* Must have hunted a creature 15 levels higher than yourself and killed it
* Must have the Manasight Skill at level 10
[Mageblood Arcanist ]
The Mageblood Arcanist has ingested raw mana from a Mageblood tree and lived to tell the tale. The Mageblood Arcanist combines her mastery of Spatial Magic with the strength of her body to create mastery over the battlefield.
Requirements:
* Must have a Mageblood Body
* Must have used Mageblood Regeneration to heal 10,000 health
* Must have earned and selected a new skill
* Must have a Weapon Mastery skill at level 5 or above
* Must have the Manasight ability at level 10
* Must have killed an enemy 15 levels or higher than yourself
* Must have killed 10 enemies 10 levels higher than yourself
* Must have Pain Tolerance at level 10 or higher
* Must have had Lesser Telekinetic Armor and Lesser Telekinetic Enhancement active at least 50 percent of the time since acquiring the skills
Kelsey couldn’t believe what she was seeing. These weren’t anything like the classes
she was offered originally. They are tailored to my accomplishments using the previous
class…
Spatial Hedge Mage seems the most basic. It’s functionally just a direct upgrade to my current class. Maybe I'd get a skill for learning other things more quickly?
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Telekinetic Savant seems like it would supercharge my current telekinetic powers, but I’m worried what it would do to skills like Spatial Sight, Transfer, Spatial Perception, and Short Range Teleport. I’ve kind of outgrown Spatial Sight by now, but it would really hurt to lose the other skills.
Spatial Hunter is certainly the least interesting to me. Sure, it sounds kind of strong, but I don’t like the implication of one of the requirements being ‘Must have hunted over 25 monsters of the same species'. I don’t want to go out and destroy entire ecosystems even if it gives me good experience.
Now, Mageblood Arcanist seems perfect. Also, ‘ingested raw mana from a Mageblood tree and lived to tell the tale’. I really wish someone had told me it was that dangerous before I drank an entire mouthful of the stuff. Oh well, all's well that ends well as they say. This class clearly has the highest requirements, and it describes perfectly what I’ve been trying to achieve with my spatial magic. I don’t think it’ll take away or change any of my skills too drastically, it seems to simply be a direct upgrade to the things I am already doing.
Spending several more minutes nervously switching between Spatial Hunter and Mageblood Arcanist. She was lost in the wilderness; a hunter type class could be exactly what she needed to find civilization. As much as I don't like the class, I need to consider it. It could give me tracking abilities, or some sort of guidance skill. Ugh I don't know what to do.
Knowing she couldn't and shouldn't put it off any longer. she finally resolved herself and picked the one that her gut told her was the correct choice; It had the highest requirements after all.
*ding* You have chosen the class [Mageblood Arcanist]!
[Mageblood Arcanist]
The Mageblood Arcanist has ingested raw mana from a Mageblood tree and lived to tell the tale. The Mageblood Arcanist combines their mastery of Spatial Magic with the strength of their body to create mastery over the battlefield.
+10 Constitution, +10 Endurance, + 10 Strength, +10 Dexterity, +30 Intelligence, +30 Willpower per level, +10 Free Points per level.
Your Mana Regeneration is improved by %300
Your body is significantly more durable
Grants the Class Skill Mageblood Regeneration - lvl 1 (Maxed)
*ding* Warning! Your Class and Mageblood body have merged. Deviating from your path
will negate the effects of your Mageblood Body.
*ding* Class skill Spatial Sight and General skill Manasight have combined into the Class
skill Magesight - lvl 1
*ding* Class skills Lesser Telekinetic Armor as well as General
skills Weapon Mastery and Unarmed Fighting have combined into the Class skill Telekinetic Armory - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Lesser Telekinesis has become Telekinesis - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Lesser Telekinetic Enhancement has become Telekinetic Enhancement - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Short Range Teleport has become Teleport - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Transfer has become Spatial Vault - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Spatial Perception has become Spatial Domain - lvl 1
*ding* Class skill Telekinetic Creation has reset to Telekinetic Creation - lvl 1
This will not decrease functionality.
*ding* You have learned the class skill Magesight - lvl 1
Combining the power of Manasight and Spatial sight, Magesight allows the user to
witness the inner workings of all magic they can see
*ding* You have learned the class skill Telekinetic Armory - lvl 1
Creates a layer of Telekinetic Armor around the user
Combining various abilities, Telekinetic Armory allows the user to use Telekinetically created armaments such as Weapons, Armor, and Shields to greater effect.
*ding* You have learned the class skill Telekinesis - lvl 1
Manipulate spatial energies to generate or nullify powerful forces
*ding* You have learned the class skill Telekinetic Enhancement- lvl 1
Enhances the user's body with telekinetic magic.
Enhancement based on skill level
*ding* You have learned the class skill Spatial Vault - lvl 1
Open a portal to a small dimension that can be used for storage
Object Size and Dimension Size influenced by skill level
Time Dilation influenced by Intelligence, Willpower, and skill level
*ding* You have learned the class skill Spatial Domain - lvl 1
Allows the user to see in a sphere around themselves
Can use spatial magic from anywhere within the domain at no penalty to mana cost
Size of Domain based on skill level
*ding* You have learned the class skill Teleport - lvl 1
Immediately appear at a destination of your choosing
Can teleport to places you are familiar with
Distance influenced by skill level
The first thing she noticed while reading the notifications was the warning about her body and class merging into a Unique Path Class. I’m not planning on diverging, but I can’t imagine how much it would hurt going back to normal considering how much getting the Mageblood body hurt in the first place.
As she finished reading her notifications, Kelsey's eyes widened in amazement. Talk about an upgrade. Some of these are huge! Time for some testing.
Standing up, she attempted to summon one of her telekinetic blades. It appeared in her hand as usual, but she sensed an additional aspect to the skill that she hadn’t felt before. With her other hand extended in front of her, she activated this new component. Instantly, a purple glowing portal materialized. Peering through, she saw what seemed to be a room, reminiscent of her previous internal storage dimension but with two significant differences. Firstly, the space was considerably larger—previously 50x50x50 meters at level 10, it was now expanded to 100x100x100 meters. Secondly, the items were meticulously organized on shelves, stands, and tables crafted from spatial mana rather than simply piled on the floor.
As she entered the portal, she noticed the corpses of horned rabbits and thorn wolves neatly arranged on tables at the back. Her crafted weapons, clothing, shields, and trinkets were displayed on racks, tables, or mannequins made from the same spatial mana. Observing the outside world through the portal, she noted that time seemed to progress two or three times faster within her vault based on how slowly the wind was moving through the trees outside.
After a few minutes, Kelsey’s head began to throb in pain. I haven’t had a headache in months, I thought I was immune to the damn things thanks to my healing. Realizing the cause, she stepped back through the portal into the real world, where her headache promptly disappeared. Guess I can’t just sleep in there and get a full 8 hours of sleep in a couple hours, that’s unfortunate. Would have been convenient.
Wait, does this mean if I put food in my storage that it will spoil faster? That would be annoying.
Exiting the portal, Kelsey noticed she could see the spatial mana emanating from it. She could also see how the portal was spatially interacting with reality around it. Magesight appeared to be a blend of her Spatial Sight and Manasight, maintaining the mostly normal vision of Manasight but incorporating details about spatial magic from Spatial Sight. She spent a few minutes studying the portal, toggling Telekinetic Enhancement and the armor component of Telekinetic Armory on and off, observing the effects on the mana within her body and surroundings. With Magesight I can tell exactly how the mana is creating these skill effects. It is all incredibly complex. It’s similar to when I first started out making telekinetic spears and swords. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I made a good enough effort to be granted a class skill evolution from it. I wonder if I could use Magesight to create other class skills. The moment that thought crossed her mind, her heart skipped a beat and her face broke into a huge grin. Maybe I could fly! I have used my skills to launch myself, maybe I can expand that to flight. I am absolutely going to have to try that when I find the time.
As she was studying the portal with her Manasight, she thought of a way to test how the time dilation worked inside her vault. Leaving the portal open, she bent down and picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it into the portal. The moment it passed the threshold, the stone’s fall slowed to a crawl. So, whenever I enter the vault, time speeds up comparatively to the real world. If I'm in the real world, time in the vault slows down. I guess that makes sense... Not that I think I’ll spend much time in the vault after the headache it gave me.
After closing the portal to her vault, she decided to test her Teleport ability. The primary function of teleportation worked as she was accustomed to, but similar to Spatial Vault, she sensed an additional facet of the skill she could now access. Oh god I really hope this works and doesn’t send me into the side of a mountain or something. Thinking of the cabin and focusing on the area in front of the door, she activated Teleport. For several seconds, as she concentrated on that single location, nothing happened, then she felt a significant amount of mana being used up as her surroundings briefly turned purple before she found herself standing in front of the cabin. Checking her mana, she saw it was completely empty but regenerating normally. I was only like 15 kilometers from the cabin! I think. Still, a very useful skill. I can only imagine how much better it will be as it levels up and I get more mana.
Next, walking into the abandoned cabin, she focused on the armor from Telekinetic Armory and Telekinetic Enhancement. She had already activated both of them before, so she knew they worked. They functioned similarly to before but had both seen significant improvements. Inspecting the armor with Magesight, she noted it had become about twice as thick, if not slightly more so. The benefits of Telekinetic Enhancement were more apparent—the Strength and Dexterity bonuses had roughly doubled, making her feel much stronger and faster. She also wasn’t planning on testing the line ‘Your body is significantly more durable’ either. She’d let a monster do that for her at some point.
Checking her status screen, Kelsey noted that the stat bonuses from her new class were not retroactive to level 25, nor did they apply to level 28. But thanks to her new empowered skills, she already felt much physically stronger than before. She had already been fast and strong, able to travel several kilometers per minute between sprinting and her teleportation, even through the dense forest, so she wasn’t too upset by the missed attribute points from not having her Telekinetic Creation skill at level 10 before she got to level 25.
Using Telekinetic Creation to craft a chair, she sat down and focused on her new Spatial Domain. Initially, it seemed unchanged to her. The domain had expanded slightly to 110 meters, yet it offered no further insights or information. Confused, she revisited the skill's description, her attention snagging on the line: ‘Can use spatial magic from anywhere within the domain at no penalty to mana cost’
Wait… no way…
Focusing her attention on a small clearing about 70 meters away from her, she willed her skills to create a bladed ring of telekinetic energy and focused on having it expand horizontally. She watched with glee as the magic took effect and she felt her mana drain. She saw the bladed ring form and then expand, slicing through some bushes and small trees at the clearing 70 meters away. She was grinning wildly by this point. This changes everything! She instantly noticed that it was much harder to control the magic from such a far distance, but the versatility she gained from her ability to do so was extraordinary.
Without hesitation, she teleported to the clearing, now intent on testing her domain’s new ability on a live creature. Laying down about 40 meters away from her, she spotted a Red Fanged Snake hiding in a bush. She had seen a few of these before, but she had always just avoided them.
Kelsey did not like snakes. She wasn’t ashamed to admit that snakes terrified her. She would rather sleep in a bed with spiders, scorpions, or roaches than be on the same planet as a
snake, but alas, they were everywhere and even here they were impossible to avoid completely.
This was the perfect monster to test on. If everything went according to plan, she wouldn’t even have to get near the damn thing. Focusing on the snake within her domain, she grabbed the snake with her new Telekinesis skill. It was significantly more powerful than Lesser Telekinesis had been and was able to hold the snake in place easily. Next, she created a small crescent blade with Telekinetic Creation right next to the snake’s head and launched the blade with Telekinesis, decapitating the snake instantly.
*ding* You have defeated a [Red Fanged Snake - lvl 11]. For defeating an enemy at a lower level than your own, less experience is given.
Well… that was easy! This Spatial Domain thing is great! Also, more experience for defeating an enemy above my level, less experience for defeating an enemy below my level. I get it, I don’t need to see it every time.
*ding* You have defeated a [Red Fanged Snake - lvl 11]
Yeah, that tracks…
Feeling very pleased with her newly upgraded skills, Kelsey teleported back into the cabin and sat back down on the chair. I’m not sure this forest has much more to offer me. I think it may be time to head to the plains I saw south of here. I can just keep following the river for a while. I don’t need to worry about food for at least a few weeks. I have enough to get by even if I don’t find anything else to hunt. Plus, I’d really like to talk with some other people again and people love building by water. Especially crystal-clear mountain water.
Then, she checked her status screen and skills for the first time since advancing to her new class.
Name: Kelsey Kain
Primary Class: Mageblood Arcanist - lvl 28
Health: 3600/3600 [Regen %1 per minute]
Stamina: 3600/3600 [Regen %1 per second]
Mana: 4800/4800 [Regen %2 per second]
Constitution: 360
Endurance: 360
Strength: 310
Dexterity: 310
Intelligence: 480
Willpower: 480
Free Points: 3
Primary Class Skills - 8/10
Telekinesis - lvl 1
Telekinetic Creation - lvl 1
Telekinetic Enhancement - lvl 1
Teleport - lvl 1
Spatial Vault - lvl 1
Telekinetic Armory - lvl 1
Magesight - lvl 1
Spatial Domain - lvl 1
Mageblood Regeneration - lvl 1 (Maxed)
General Skills - 5
Anouran language – lvl 10 (Maxed)
Identify – lvl 7
Meditation - lvl 9
Pain Tolerance - lvl 12
Poison Resistance - lvl 11
With her mind made up Kelsey stood up and left the cabin for what she hoped would be the last time for a long time and began making her way south.