Two weeks passed without any major incidents, and during that time, Leo spent much of his waking time delving into the intricacies of spellcraft and swordplay.
As Leo and Rize requested, Sir Verakith went to the guards and the leaders of the city to tell them about the darkling threat. With nothing they could do other than risk agitating them, the guards of Normouth set up more encompassing patrols, especially along the city’s walls at night. They also called in reinforcements from the greater kingdom of Ashar that Normouth resided within, though Leo never heard if those reinforcements would arrive any time soon.
With that ticking time bomb in the background, he dove into the learning to distract himself. Starting with magic, he found it a little more complex than he was expecting. Firstly, she had him buy a wand. He had to use a wand, staff, or some other implement to cast a spell with a core element of anything other than Wood. Light, Dark, and Aether magic seemed to be fine, but anything else would leave trace amounts of that element’s energy in his body, which would be toxic to him if he didn’t share that element.
That answered a looming question he had, and he was able to confirm it with Zumra later when he asked about the Earth toxicity. Things that he Combined also left energy within him, but as a Mixer he had an amount of resistance to anything that he personally made. The only reason the Stoneskin potion gave him any toxicity at all was because it was of higher rank than him. According to Zumra, things would start to get dicey if he had 50% Toxicity from one or multiple sources, but Leo could cleanse himself with the same potions that he’d use to clear away curses or diseases, the counterpart to healing potions made using Light element material with Wood instead of Dark.
In any case, Rize taught Leo the basics of magic and particularly spellcasting. Without any innate magical abilities other than what he got from being a Laborer, he had to use spells to interact with magic. Spellcasting felt oddly complex, and even doing the simplest spell didn’t come easy to Leo. They started with something incredibly introductory, having a small wick of flame appear on his finger like a flickering candle, and that felt like a huge wall to overcome. To Leo, it felt like singing while playing an instrument, having to focus on multiple things at once. As he had to say the right words for the spell, and move his wand in the right motion and speed. But he also had to add in having a clear mental image of the effect that he was trying to produce. Arguably the most important part, according to Rize, as not having a clear image would cause the spell to fizzle out at best, and blow up in his face at worst. It took him a few days before he even started attempting to properly cast, just so they could make sure he got the motions down, and a week total before he could properly cast the spell.
Comparatively, learning the sword seemed easier. Sir Verakith already knew that Leo had next to no experience with it going in, but he did complement Leo on his footwork and stance, another holdover from Leo’s time boxing. That was about the only thing the knight complimented Leo on, getting to work on making sure both Leo and Rize knew how to use their weapons properly. By contrast, through some great means of persuasion that he refused to speak of, Layne had convinced Sir Verakith to teach him as well that Collapsing Sword Dance he’d been talking about.
Leo would definitely take glances at his practice hearing a low rumble like thunder and smelling ozone along with the arcs of electricity coming from Layne’s blade, but it only took one look for Leo to tell that whatever that was existed far beyond what he was even trying to learn, so he didn’t even ask Sir Verakith about it. Sir Verakith certainly didn’t hesitate to put Leo up against the more experienced Rize, and the definitely battle-hardened Layne for sparring and practice. After the training, Leo would take his battered and bruised form and practice magic with Rize until it got late into the night, only to meet up at Zumra’s the next morning so Leo could drop off any potions that he didn’t put into the Labors’ shop.
At the end of the two weeks, Leo didn’t feel that much stronger in the grand scheme of things, but he could light a match with the flick of his wrist and a few magic words, and Sir Verakith confirmed that he took to the basics fairly well. He even might become a competent swordsman if he kept at it for thirty years or so!
Jokes aside, Leo just needed more practice and more actual combat experience. He thought about how he was going to go about getting the latter, and decided to ask Layne about it. Thankfully, the perfect time to ask came up when, at the end of the training session on the last day of the second week, he asked Leo if he had any D rank healing potions, since buying directly cost less credits than going to the Labor’s shop.
“Only one.” Leo answered with a shrug. “I made a bunch of E ranks today, though I can take you to the shop where I’ve been leaving some of them. I worked out a deal with the shopkeeper since he’s also a Mixer.”
Layne looked lost in thought for a moment, as if he was weighing his options, before he nodded. “Sure, let's go when you’re ready.”
“Sweet You coming Rize? Or should I just meet you at your place?”
“I’ll tag along. I’ve been wanting to see if Zumra has any more of that hair wash I bought from him last time.
And so, the three of them bid farewell to Sir Verakith for the day set off for Zumra’s, and along the way, he made his inquiries to his not-quite-captive audience. “So Layne, you’ve been doing this for a while, got any tips for someone who’s gonna start actively questing.”
He glanced over, giving Leo a look that made it seem like he’d rather do anything but have to answer the question, before he started speaking. “It’s doable, but difficult without any combat skills.” He answered. “Generally, you stick to the quests around your rank. They say you shouldn’t run into anything too crazy if you do that, though you’ve already seen that exceptions do apply.”
Both Leo and Rize chuckled nervously at that, having narrowly escaped with their lives on what was supposed to be an E rank quest.
Continuing on, Layne spoke with a dark look in his eye, as if he reminisced about a memory he’d rather forget. “The gods who make the quests are generally good about assigning difficulty, but that’s the biggest trap for Laborers even all the way up to the S ranks. The gods have grown complacent and predictable, and the outsiders have become adept at manipulating the worlds they’re trying to claim so that things happen before the gods can marshall enough Laborers to do something about it, or turning the quests into something much more difficult than they’re supposed to be. Like the darklings.” He looked away, with a pained expression on his face. "You have no idea how bad things would have gotten…”
Thinking back on it, this was one of the few times the gods were brought up since Leo got here, outside of the one who supposedly made him a Laborer in the first place. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience. Have you met any S ranks?”
Layne’s gaze snapped back to Leo as he cleared his throat. “A couple. I’ve just been able to confirm with the ones I’ve talked to that they’ve felt the same way. Anyway though- just keep your eyes open, and it’s probably better to quest in a party even if it's for something innocuous like gathering plants. If it’s important enough for the Labors to need it done, it’s important enough for the Outsiders to screw with it.”
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“Noted.” Leo replied. Prior experience had proven Layne correct to Leo and Rize already, so he saw no need to refute what he said. “So how do you suppose a lowly E rank Mixer actually survive like this?”
“You just have to use what you have available.” He said. “Most people who join the Labors get skills that compliment them. I’m assuming that you already had the magic you use, and that you gained skills that helped with them when you gained your class.” He paused, waiting for Rize’s nod before continuing. “Most humans from earth don’t come in with anything, so they have to rely on what they get from the Labors. If the Labors don’t give you something you can obviously use in a fight like a ‘Swordsmanship’ skill, you have to survive how humans originally survived. By using the tools they have available. Weapons, knowledge. Even people can be tools given the right opportunity.”
They continued to walk, but both Rize and Leo stared at Layne for that oddly dark note at the end of the pretty inspirational advice. Leo held his tongue, deciding not to comment on it. He’d tried talking to Layne while they were training before, and he proved to be hard to get much of anything out of. Hell, Leo suspected the only reason Layne talked to him was that they were both from Earth.
Layne seemed to notice the awkwardness, and cleared his throat once again. “Anyway, you learning the sword and magic makes for a good backup, but you have something that can let you make a lot of tools.”
“Right, it feels like I can make nearly anything with Combine if I have the right materials. Any suggestions?”
“Exploiting elemental weaknesses can make up for rank differentials, to some degree, so you probably want to make sure you have something of every element to use.” Layne explained. “You could probably make bombs of every element. Oils and poisons, resistance potions, arrowheads. You’d need someone to teach you how to use a bow, though. Guns and bullets get too expensive for anyone other than S ranks to use. Those are just things I’ve bought from other Mixers. It might get expensive for you to have to get the materials to make these things but you can mitigate the cost by harvesting from monsters yourself.”
“So you’re saying I have to turn into Link.” Leo summarized.
Layne paused, and then chuckled, giving a rare smile. “Yeah, I guess so. Maybe increase your fortitude so you can actually take a hit, otherwise, there’s armor in the shop that’s expensive, but it will do the job against things at its rank.”
Leo started to check the shop, wondering if he could find some kind of guide on how to make bombs, since he didn’t have that knowledge. As he scrolled through a couple of low-credit options, a notification popped up in front of him.
You’ve sold 50 items made with Combine! Achievement Reward: D rank Mental Karma.
“50?” He murmured. Since he was already in the shop, he checked to find that the potions he’d put up earlier that day were still mostly there.
“Something wrong?” Rize asked, sensing Leo’s sudden change in demeanor.
“I just got the achievement for selling 50 items. Most of the stuff I put on the shop is still there, which means someone bought up the dozen or so potions I had sitting on Zumra’s shelves.” He’d been inside Zumra’s shop during semi-random surges of customers, but not when someone needed to buy that many healing potions.
“If they’re buying healing potions in bulk, it might mean that one of the Laborer guilds heard something.” Layne noted. “We might be able to figure it out if we hurry.”
They suspended their conversation on how Leo could be a better Laborer and picked up the pace, rushing the rest of the way to get to Zumra’s shop.
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: E (0/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (0/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
E
Intuition: D- (0/10)
Status
Health 100% Mana 100%
Will: E- (8/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage
Luck: D (0/10)
Skill: Combine
Mix different raw materials into a new item. You choose the shape of the form. Final form is affected by rank and element of materials.
Store Combine results into a mental guidebook that grows based on Intellect rank.
Skill: Auto-Loot (Mixer)
Automatically separates mixable materials from slain creatures. If the [Storage] skill is active, automatically places loot into storage space.
Skill: Appraise (Mixer)
Look at a creature or material and gain information on them. Information includes: Rank, Element, Class, Statuses, Titles. May have difficulty appraising creatures of higher rank, or creatures hidden by another skill or effect. Skill affect boosted by Intuition Rank.
Skill: Storage (Mixer)
Creates an inter-dimensional storage space that only you can access. Storage increases with Total Rank