Though, it was night when she stepped out of the school, she tried going into The Caves, the Earth Magic school. It was literally a cave at the base of a small hill.
Lucky for her, it was open.
She walked in, rounded the corner and was greeted by an NPC, “Welcome to The Cave. How can I help you?”
“Yes, I was looking at learning a new skill.”
“Well that’s what we’re here for! At your current level you can learn any tier 2 skill. Please take a look at the menu.”
The menu was a large board above the front desk. There were various skill sets all tiered from one to five. Looking closer, there were various categories of Attack, Defense, Buffs, Manipulating and Summoning spells. All with according prices.
The Summoning category caught her eye, but the price for even a tier 1 summoned earth worm was acceptable, 50 gold, why even bother…
But what she had really came here for was Attack. She looked through a few of those. Dirt Clod had a whole five tiers, each one being a larger piece of dirt, and finally a tier five Earth Beam. Sounds hilarious, but it would probably do some serious damage.
The other was Stone, which might be an option.
There was the category of manipulation that she had to check out. A panacea which just made you able to manipulate any amount of dirt or stone from a pound to a whole ton! Obviously, imagination was key here. She was positive !Geeky?Nerd!007 used this one to make those pillars of earth. Obviously the only note was that you must have that element around you to be able to use the skill.
But looking at the specs of the skills, it seemed like the smartest choice would be at least a tier three skill in Earth Manipulation, as one could manipulate any amount of earth up to 100 pounds of Earth. Anything below that would be hardly effective. But being able to move a huge amount of Earth, at tier 5, would make all the lower tiers useless. So it really depended on how much you want to spend on this skill at this time.
The Earth Defense skills were interesting, being able to conjure a rock or piece of dirt in order to defend yourself from any seen attack. It was a special shield, not a mana shield, that surrounded you in Earth type material. The tier 1 skills seemed absolutely worthless unless you were fighting a rabbit, but the tier 5 Earth Defense allowed you to have a literal sphere of earth around you. This was also different from the shield, which was more of a statistical element of earth attacks shielded. Which worked against earth attacks, up to 500% stronger than a mana shield.
So, Mana shields were general, but having an Earth Shield could stop a bullet, at the right tier. And Earth Defense would be able to withstand almost any physical attack.
She took a step back, realizing that just reading the menu was a whole lot more informative than taking those three classes in Mage’s Magix school.
She went back to the menu and checked out Earth Buffs, just to finish of her education. But they were pretty much as anyone would suspect. Higher attack and defense percent, while lowering damage taken and any Earth Magic costs. Others which included Earthen Hands, any attack having a percentage of Earth Magic imbued into them. Or Earthen Skin, which effectively gave one a very solid defense. And finally the Buff, Sorcerer of Earth Magic, imbuing every attack with Earth damage and for a very low Mana cost. Efficiency for the top leveled Mages…
Now was time to decide. She wouldn’t walk out of here empty handed. It was just way thing were. Fate put you here to buy some spells. Plus, going around, not buying anything, from one skill shop to the other was just… picky.
So she paid for her spells. The first, Stone (tier 2).
-200 gold
And the second, just because it made sense, and would most likely help in her own personal morale, she got the Buff, Earth Caster as well.
-200 gold
You have bought the skill Stone (tier 2)!
You know those little annoying monsters that throw stones just at the right time, slowly taking your hearts fraction by fraction? Now, you can be that little annoying monster too! Used as a spell you can conjure a stone into your hand and do what you please.
Summons a 5 pound stone in one’s hand.
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Cost:
20 MP
Gives:
1 5lbs Stone
+2 MP
+2 Wisdom: Summoning: Elemental
You have bought the Buff Earth Caster (tier 2)!
Starting on the path to becoming a Master Earth Mage, you have a long way to go. But, that doesn’t mean that sales and coupons are out of your reach. Use this spell to increase the effectiveness of your Earth Magic spells and decrease the cost.
Use this spell to increase the effectiveness of your Earth Magic spells and decrease the cost. Lasts for 10 minutes of Buff.
Costs:
20 MP
Gives:
+20% quality of Earth Magic
-20% MP cost of Earth Magic
+2 Wisdom: Buffs: Enhance: Elemental
Alright! Now she can do some damage! … against rodents. But that wasn’t too bad, and at least it was a start.
The NPC at the desk asked her if she wanted to test out her new skills in the training cavern.
Of course she did! So she went to the next room.
She did simple tests, throwing a few stones, casting the Buff and trying again. The stone was heavier, but just by a bit. At least it was something, and could maybe be used as a fist packer or a blunt weapon, even if it is a bit big in the fist.
After the first attempt she had already gotten a nice prompt.
You have reached Level 10!
You have 10 Skill points for your use.
Well, that would have been really nice just three minutes earlier! Level 10 was the frickin’ threshold of tier 3 spells! She could have gotten at least one spell that didn’t suck that much!
Well, she was stuck with what she’s got now. And in the future, keep an eye on the XP, and such thresholds of levels. It would have been the difference of casting a few Buffs or putting up a shield!
She chilled out, throwing a few more exaggerated stones at the walls and exited The Cave.
Now, what else seems of any interest? She looked around, everything was extremely garish colors, like a theme park. Way too many colors for just a magic school. But, at least she knew yellow = Lightning, red = Fire…
The next place that seems of interest was the Robery. She stepped in and found herself in a beautiful shop of all the magical robes she could imagine! There were robes for all elemental defense and attacks, of course, others that would enhance her stats by a whopping 20 points to skills in wisdom, stamina, intelligence. Some even decreased solidity to negative numbers, making one effectively invisible.
There was much to look at, and of course all the good one were priced up in the thousands of gold.
She went up to the desk to see what else she could learn.
“Hello, welcome to the Robery. How can I help you? If you’re interested in a custom robe an assistant will be out to help you momentarily.”
Wow! Custom robes…
“Well, I was just looking around and wanted to know what I should be looking for.”
“That isn’t a problem, dear. Simply answer this question. What is your forte?”
“Well, I’m a Psychic, but I’m looking for some more spells in attack. I’ve already just bought a few Earth Magic spells.”
“That’s perfect. And congratulations on learning some Elemental Magic. I can point you to the Earth Magic robes, there’s also a section which increases abilities in any kind of magic or spell casting, over there.” The NPC pointed to a rack of brown and grey robes, and another of various hues. “And one more question. Do you have a sponsor?”
“I do have a sponsor. Athena clothes.”
“Oh, that’s fantastic! They just came out with a new product and you receive a 75% discount on any of their products.”
The NPC motioned her over to a display. It was an iridescent dark purple robe, on the back was a huge grey brand logo of a dark grey triangle with a slash through it. It was tempting her… calling her name…
She looked at the stats it gave:
Athena Clothing Psychic Robe
Durability: 500/500
Class: Psychic/Mage’s Robe
Rank: Master’s
Stats:
Psychic spells 50% more effective
Cost of all spells -25% MP
+25 Wisdom: Defense: Magic
-10 Solidity: Physical: Ghostly
+5 Agility: Magical: Summoning
+5 Agility: Magical: Casting
+5 Agility: Magical: Manipulation
+5 Agility: Magical: Evading
Cost: 10,000 gold
It was made just for her! But, oh dear. That’s an arm and a leg. Even with the sponsorship bonus it was still 2,500 gold. And after buying a few skills, she was left with 928 gold…
“Are there any more coupons or discounts?”
“Sorry dear, no further discounts available. But on most other robes you would be able to use a 25% discount with your sponsor’s logo, and a 10% discount for first time customer.”
That’s not a bad deal.
But this one was so awesome!
“Could I buy it on credit? Down payment? Loan-lease payments? Insane interest? Insurance credit? Aaaaanything…?” Her voice kept getting higher and higher.
“Actually you can. There’s two options. One, you can take it for one day, and if paid, you can keep it. If not paid, the robe disappears and come back to the Robery refurbished. Second option, you can pay any sum greater than 500 gold and will have to pay the balance 105 gold per day, that’s an interest of 5 gold per day, until paid back. If not the robe will come back to the Robery automatically and be refurbished.”
Either option seems painful, but not it you’re out and about. Doing some safe quests and not too much PvP may help with that. If she paid 500 gold, that would leave 2000 to be repaid, with the minimum payment of 100 that would give her 20 days to pay it all back.
“One question. What if I default during that time.”
“That is an excellent question. If you default, two things could happen. One, the item could be taken as loot. The set cutoff looting time being five minutes after default, or, in in an un-official battle, after the end of the battle. If it is taken as loot, you would have to pay the remainder before buying any further items from the Robery. Or, two, the item doesn’t get looted and it is merely returned to the Robery and refurbished. Repairs being taken into account and, depending on the amount paid and/or unpaid, a bill will be written and have to be paid before further items are bought from the Robery.”
Alright. Here we go, getting into financial details.
“Okay, I’ll pay 500 gold and pay the rest by payments of 105 gold, within 20 days.”
The NPC smiled a toothy grin and said, “Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a Robery robe, Athena Clothing’s Psychic Robe.”
The glass display opened up and she went over to put it on. It fit perfectly.
She thanked the NPC and walked out.