Mikella sat cross-legged on the ground, her eyes closed as the fresh breeze of the outside hit her skin. The training yard was where she felt more at home than even being inside of a home.
Thanks to her suspension, she took the time to fully interact with her inner workings. It was something she ignored while trying to raise her levels like mad, only to end up faltering and falling over herself in the process.
Now, she took her time to truly look at herself. Mikella was never the type to really do this type of meditation. She’s the type to move around, let her brain think better while moving. At least, that’s what she always considered herself to be.
Boy, was she wrong. Meditation proved itself by dividends to help gather her thoughts. Not just the skill, but the act itself is helping her handle things better.
After talking with Cloud dealing with the unnecessary traits of her Dragon Warrior class, this became her answer. What is better to look within yourself than with Meditation?
She wondered whether the traits were just a mental thing or just her imagination. She turned stunned when she realized it was an actual thing–a physical manifestation within herself. She didn’t have Internal Senses like Zeke did, but one could get a feel of their body as though they had the skill, but with no sight.
Val and Cloud taught her this, so she was shocked and appalled that such a thing was inside of her. It nestled deep within her, something that connected itself to her Class Skills. On the other hand, her General and Acquired skills were far away from this strange manifestation.
However, despite her first impression of it, she didn’t fear it. In the end, Cloud said that her traits were a part of her–a part of her class. So she accepted them. The traits weren’t bad, not entirely, just too self-serving. It did help her raise her levels far faster than she normally could have, and along with her own drive, it took her to places.
But she has to make sure to keep a vice grip on this thing. She didn’t have a good mental image of it yet, but she knew it was a slippery bastard. One slip-up, and she could end up going crazy again.
While she did this, she kept thinking about the stories Cloud told her of Zeke’s time in the town.
Apparently he didn’t just study runes inside the house. He went outside and actually inscribed runes wherever his abilities were needed. Thanks to that, plenty of people were living a lot better now, ranging from cleaner water to easier storing of their food.
They were all such minor things for a town in her mind, but in truth it was life and death for the common people. Considering how often she thought of him just studying for pleasure–even going so far as calling him useless–she felt ashamed.
Yes, that same old friend wrenched around her gut like a vice, showing her the error of her ways. Zeke didn’t mind it anymore, but she could tell that it hit him hard.
It was worse when she realized that he had a bad past with his mother, and she went ahead and insulted him behind his back.
She shook her head. She can feel ashamed all she wants, but it won’t solve her current issues. If Zeke can be mature and put aside his own worries for their sake, then she can too. And that means dealing with her own training after this session.
She planned on training with other weapons other than the sword. While raising Sword Mastery was a given, Val taught her that it wasn’t impossible for her to learn other weapon mastery skills. Just a lot harder now that she had a class that uses the sword.
But it didn’t forbid her from learning other skills. Rather than getting upset that she can’t earn XP anymore–she got excited from learning new ways to do combat.
But before she thought about standing up and doing exactly that, her anxious energy rising up from her core, Clara spoke.
“Sissy! Let’s play!”
Sissy opened her eyes to find Clara so close to her face. Since she was sitting down on the ground, her sister was towering over her a little. Her face was so ecstatically joyful to find her sister on the yard, as if waiting to play with her.
Mikella let out a breath. She smiled, knowing that this was also just as important for her recovery. She already felt as though her soul was recovering, being away from combat after all this time.
To know that Zeke was taking over caring for Clara while Mikella was out of bounds filled her with a sense of joy she hadn’t felt before. That, and a smidge of jealousy and envy for getting so close with one another so soon.
Still, she took Clara’s hand and spoke with mirth. “Sure, what do you wanna play?”
“Tag!” Clara shouted. “I’m the best! I always beat Bobo!”
“Pssh,” Mikella scoffed. “Bobo’s so slow, anyone can catch him. Now, as for me… do you think you can keep up?”
“Yeah, I can!”
Clara barked back with a challenge in her tone. Mikella knew that Zeke wasn’t that slow for her to catch–for instance, his legs were longer than her own. Still, he slowed just enough for Clara to catch him, but she wasn't going to give up that easily.
Zeke is the sort to be gentle, always letting Clara win at the end. Mikella, however, wanted to instill competition into her. There’s no better way to grow than to have a need to get better at things, no matter how minor.
…..
A week passed since the change up from Mikella to Zeke came about. Since then, the group has been progressing smoothly.
Not that they found the source yet, which had been the bane in Val’s side ever since the expeditions started. But the entire military group as a whole had improved thanks to Zeke’s barriers and healing.
When Zeke returned with everyone else after a few hours of switching between groups for his support one day, Val had an idea and spoke to Zeke at length.
At first, he was worried. Then, he got curious. Finally, he accepted it.
And so now, the very same Bobo was at the center of the field with the captain by his side, surrounded by dozens of monsters.
They were at a large clearing, something that the expedition already explained that doing so would be dangerous, as this was where an unusually large group of monsters gathered according to their scouts. The grassy ground was marred with cuts and scrapes, the trees decimated from the claw marks and teeth possibly involved.
But more than anything, the surroundings were filled to the brim with all manner of beasts. Ranging from wolves to bears, to even avian-like creatures and lizards of all ilk. They surrounded them like crazy, their roaring and mewling scraping against their ear drums.
The other soldiers were all gathered around the captain and the mage in a large circle, their weapons up and their faces twitching with nervous excitement. Mostly nervous than excited, Zeke realized, as the monsters were getting to be extremely close to their liking.
The excitement, however, was stemming from the fact that they were all inside Zeke’s extremely large dome-barrier. The monsters were trying–and failing–to reach inside the barrier, often hitting against the wall of light with barely any progress. The same could be said for the soldiers who couldn’t really attack from behind the barrier, and instead could only watch as the monsters seemed to just gather around the barrier by the dozens.
Zeke was honestly starting to regret making this decision. Just one wrong move and they would be surrounded by a horde of monsters and ripped to pieces.
Thankfully, his gloves made even creating this large dome extremely potent. The walls were thin and tougher than steel at this point, the large ferocious monsters doing nothing but scratching against the walls with no sign of wearing down.
“Zeke, do you have a handle on this?” Val asked, turning to him with a casual smirk. Zeke wondered if this was just normal for her because she wasn’t fazed at all by the rising number of monsters.
“Y-Yeah,” Zeke nodded. He made sure that he could keep this barrier up while surviving the forest, after all. “I can leave this even in my sleep.”
“That’s perfect,” Val nodded with obvious glee, then she turned to the rest and showed a solemn captain’s face. “Alright, everyone, form up!”
As per her orders, Zeke was still amazed how fast these soldiers reacted so quickly to her. They all lined up in a circular pattern across the barrier. They were like that before but now they were unified, their weapons at the ready in a defensive stance. He saw enough that they weren’t ready to actually strike at a moment’s notice, but to defend themselves from any surprise attacks.
“Zeke,” Val turned to him, her stare becoming heavier by the second. “Do you think you can open up small holes within your barrier? Making some small…” Val squinted her eyes, her mind calculating the distance. “two-feet wide embrasures?”
Zeke first had to figure out what the hell the word ‘embrasure’ meant, then his memory caught up as he did so. He didn’t really need to focus all that much effort into it as he did it with just a thought.
Across the surface of the dome near the bottom, small holes began to appear in long rectangular intervals, making them two feet according to Val’s estimates. The moment the holes appeared, the monsters around them immediately jumped at them, trying to get in.
The beasts, however, weren’t particularly smart about it. They tried to force themselves into the small hole, but each one kept crowding around it, becoming more of a nuisance. It wasn't even that big for even one to enter with ease, the smallest of them bigger than several feet wide, much less the dozens trying to cram themselves in.
However, the embrasures were definitely wide enough for the soldier’s weapons to shine. Val shouted to the rest of them.
“Open fire”!
Each soldier, using a long bladed weapon instead of using short daggers and axeblades, began to pierce straight through the embrasures. Each strike forced a blade through their bodies, causing the monsters to start whining in pain as the weapons kept slashing and cutting them.
Some died, but others quickly knew what was happening and tried to run off. However, the holes were small enough that the other monsters who weren’t attacked yet didn’t seem to find out why they were whining, basically forcing them to get back into the killing zone.
That misunderstanding, in Zeke’s eyes, became their huge mistake as more bodies began to pile up. All the while, he felt a twinge of energy practically pouring straight into him. A notification popped up in front of his eyes, surprising him.
> Level up! You are now Level 28. You gain 2 free points (2 FP total).
>
> You have gained +1 DEX from your class.
> You have gained +1 INT from your class.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your class.
“I didn’t think I leveled up like this,” Zeke said to Val, who the two were still at the center watching the violence and the erasure of the dumb animals that refused to move.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Even supporters and healers get XP by helping out the others. As long as the system recognizes it, of course. All this easy XP is due to your efforts, so it’s not surprising.”
Val smiled as the soldiers seemed gleeful to kill the monsters, gaining that sweet XP and leveling up. Some even shouted with glee as they raised their arms up in delight.
Before long, the monsters clearly knew what was going on and left. Unfortunately it took over half of their attackers dying on the spot before they realized that they can’t get in, and it wasn’t worth killing themselves even if they did. They ran, figuring that it was as if fighting against a battlement that was made right in the center of their gathering.
And just like that, the clearing was theirs to take. It didn’t even take that long–about two hours at best according to Zeke’s estimation by his mana dropping.
Still, all he did was modify his barriers a little, so he didn’t really spend that much mana. He decided to put his points straight into Spirit. He didn’t find a need to increase anything else, and there was nothing wrong with having more mana for a support mage.
“Whoo!” Myra shouted out loud, raising her hands up. Her spear, a partisan this time for this tactic, rose in the air. “Captain! I got to level 30 thanks to that!”
Zeke widened his eyes at that. He knew Myra was close thanks to the month spent hunting with Mikella, but he realized now that level 30 is an important step.
That’s when she’ll break into her next level milestone.
“Congratulations, Myra!” Val applauded with glee. She returned back to her usual housewife/mother demeanor for a short moment before returning back to her captain’s state. “Here, this is for you.”
Val said, pulling something from the pack she owned. It was her own pack, the design different from Zeke’s own. It was extremely expensive, but as a warrior of renown, she had one for herself.
She showed what looked like a small bottle with red-tinged liquid swirling within the glass. She then gently placed the bottle to Myra’s cupped hands, making her coddle it as though it was a priceless artifact.
“Yes!” Myra squealed, a surprising feminine voice coming from this ferocious warrior. “Finally! I’ve been looking forward to this for years!”
Val and everyone else smiled at the scene, and Zeke just smiled for Myra’s own joy.
“Everyone, let’s take a short rest,” Val shouted, turning to the excited girl. “Myra, I’ll come with you for your process.”
“Thank you, captain.”
Myra nodded before returning back to her pals, the twins who were excited for her as they cheered and patted her on the shoulder, looking ecstatic for this process of hers.
Meanwhile, Zeke wondered exactly what was about to happen. He knew there would be something different for the level 30 milestone compared to the level 10 one, but it looked like it was a lot different than just picking a class.
“Zeke, may I ask a favor of you?” Val asked, turning to Zeke with a small smile. “Do you have some spare mana to spend?”
“Of course,” Zeke answered without hesitating. There was no reason to deny the captain. “What can I do?”
“I’m going to help with Myra’s milestone breaking, and I’d like for you to be my assistant for that.”
Zeke widened his eyes. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t mind, but do I really need to be there?”
“Normally the process isn’t so excruciating, but it would really help if you can add in your healing. Even if it’s to advance to the Expert stage, it can still be pretty dangerous for some. Having a healer around would help Myra feel at ease.”
Zeke wasn’t all that surprised. From what he knew about reaching level 30 in one’s class, not only would it advance and give you options to how to evolve your class into something greater, but it also granted you something else–a feature of sorts.
Something called an attunement. If gaining an attunement is something that a healer needs to be around, then he shouldn’t be all that surprised.
Still, he was glad to find out he could be of use to a friend of Mikella’s. Zeke nodded, getting Val to lead him to where Myra would be.
For some reason, the two decided to step far away from the others, the soldiers taking the time to rest as they all understood that taking the time to break a milestone is a monumental moment for Myra. Zeke could tell there’s a lot of love and care between the soldiers, the comrades who would fight and die by each other’s side to defend their homes. There was a lot of passion in there that Zeke could understand and was glad to be a part of, if only for a short moment as a mage.
The three were now surrounded by heavily thick trees and shrubs, practically non-visible to the soldiers near to their side. Right when Zeke was about to ask why the sudden privacy, his eyes almost exploded out of his head after seeing Myra taking off her armor, and then her clothes from the mid-waist up.
“Whoa!”
Zeke immediately closed his eyes, turning around as how a gentleman should. Myra let out a deep laugh while Val let out an exasperated breath.
“Couldn’t you wait before I warn Zeke about it?” Val said, though she sounded mildly amused rather than annoyed at Myra.
“I couldn’t! I don’t mind if Zeke looked at my goodies. I gotta break my milestone, right now!”
“Alright, alright, remember–you still got a few hours to break it before the attunement phase worsens. Zeke needs to know what he’s dealing with if you’re gonna have a good time, alright?”
“Alright, just hurry up already, please!” Myra added in last, her voice tinged with a whine.
Val turned around and got Zeke to a corner where he wouldn't get distracted by a very attractive and half-naked woman by the side.
She explained how the process of the level 30 milestone went, including the attunement he was curious about.
In a way, an attunement is a person taking on an aspect into their mana, turning it into energy of that same aspect.
The aspect can either be the basic four elements, or something specific like wood, metal, ice and lightning. Some could even be something intangible, like the nature aspect or even the shadow aspect.
When the core has taken in an aspect, their magical energy–or mana–changed appropriately to their favored attunement. This way, even a warrior can fight using magic without an enchanted magical weapon or armor involved. They just charge their attacks with their newly attuned aspected Mana to increase the damage, or add special effects depending on the attunement.
For mages, they can also flavor their spells with the attunement they have acquired. Though it is suggested for them to have an attunement their spell favors. For example, if someone prefers using earth magic as a Mage, then taking on an earth attunement for their level 30 milestone can increase their power dramatically. They can even shorten the mana consumption as the earth spell uses the same aspected energy as earth mana. Attunements can be an incredible tool for mages.
However, not everyone can easily take an attunement. Historically, a person breaking through their level 30 milestone must be near a strong source of their respected elemental mana. An example of this is being near scorching hot lava, an excellent source to take in fire mana. Another example is being surrounded in a dark cavern deep underground, helping you gain the earth attunement.
But clearly, not everyone is capable of going to such places for their level 30 milestones in time. That’s when bringing a specific potion or concoction is necessary.
What Myra carried in her hands, nearly clutching it like an heirloom, was a potion meant to help her attunement. That liquid contains a strong source of Fire Mana, at least according to Zeke’s own eyes. He had a hard time trying to decipher any elements from nearby Mana for a while, but finally seeing that liquid with his Internal Senses helped him understand.
Inside there was a strong burst of Mana heavily condensed into a liquid form, the colors reminding him of a blazing hot fire.
“So Myra, you’re planning on taking in a Fire Attunement?” Zeke asked. Of course, he made sure to look away while Myra was mentally preparing her body and mind, something that was required to do before breaking a milestone.
“Yeah,” Myra answered. She didn’t seem to mind being naked around Zeke at all, which only made Zeke more awkward. “I always planned on taking Fire mana since I was young. I like to hit hard and fast, but I’m too dumb to really focus on speed, and I don’t wanna stick around and take hits like tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there.”
Zeke recalled that the mentioned names must be the twins. He nodded before asking. “Why is it bad to take in speed?”
“You saw me fighting those birds,” Myra answered. “I don’t have good hand-eye coordination, even if I increase my Dexterity. I don’t wanna cripple myself with an attunement that doesn’t fit my style. No, Fire Mana is the way to go! It helps boost my attacks, and can even linger and deal extra damage while fighting.”
“So damage over time…” Zeke muttered, realizing what she was saying. “That’s a pretty good plan.”
“Captain was the one that suggested it,” Myra said, offering a nod to the smiling Val. “But I really took it in. I actually wanted to specialize in the same attunement as Captain, but after thinking about it, it’ll just make me worse in fighting than actually getting better.”
Zeke was surprised by how much thought she put into this, but disregarded it as pretty obvious. They lived in this world their whole lives, so it’s natural to have dreams of what to be when they grow up. She clearly wanted to fight just like the captain, so she focused in her own best way to improve.
Hearing all this, Zeke wanted nothing more than to help, but he wasn’t really sure exactly what he could do for her. Stepping aside, still making sure not to take a glimpse at her, he turned to Val.
“Just let her go through with it,” Val smiled at him. “She might get some wounds here and there, but nothing a little healing can’t fix.”
Zeke nodded, turning back once Val told Myra to turn around so that her back faced against them.
Val said that it was often better to take off the upper portion of your clothes as sweat could riddle her entirely and make her armor uncomfortable during milestone breaking, but that didn’t mean Val was okay showing Myra’s ‘goodies’ to Zeke as he could use this to learn for his own milestone breaking.
In the meanwhile, Zeke got curious and asked. “If it’s okay with you, what’s your attunement, Val?”
He wondered if he should’ve called her Captain like everyone else, but Val answered just the same as always.
“It’s a bit special,” Val said with a smile. That smile though felt… awkward. “That’s why I'm glad that Myra went with her own path. It’s not something a normal person should get.”
Zeke decided to read the mood and not bring up the subject again. He owes Val a lot, so he won’t pry into her own private business if she doesn’t want to.
“Captain, I’m ready!”
Once Val gave her the go-ahead, Myra downed the contents with a single gulp. Zeke couldn’t imagine the amount of pressure that gave her as she easily winced from the way her back flinched. Then she lowered her head and presumably closed her eyes. Her hands were in front of her as Zeke studied her entirely using Internal Senses.
Normally the skill would be useful to study the runes in arrays and formations, but he found that using the skill like this helped a lot in figuring out how the world worked with Mana. He even gained a skill up after using Internal Senses so many times after a month of learning runes.
> Internal Senses Level Up! It is now Level 6.
>
> You have gained+1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
“What do you see?” Val asked, figuring already that he could see the inner workings as a Runist. Zeke was glad to fill the silence as it seemed like it was going to take a while.
Zeke told her what he saw, but it wasn’t really all that impressive at first. Her channels filled her entire body, lining up in ways much like the veins connecting to her heart. Her three energies were swirling around and passing through them as usual, the energies consisting of her life energy, her ‘Health’, her kinetic energy, her ‘Stamina’, and her own magical energy.
But soon enough the flaming red hot foreign mana coursed through her body via her channels like her energies. Soon, Fire mana rode over all her mana channels, taking over them and even connecting to her health and stamina channels.
“That must be her accepting the notification for a breakthrough,” Val said. “One normally has a notification before breaking through level 30. Ooh, this is so exciting! You have no idea how long Myra waited for this day~”
Zeke smiled at Val’s excitement, seeing the change happening outside. Myra’s body shivered as sweat truly started covering her entire body. Steam even rose from her brown skin, something that usually occurs when taking in Fire Mana.
He also noticed a few blotches opening up around her body, blood trailing from them. Zeke became worried before realizing from Val that this was a natural process for level breaking. The body is basically being tempered from all the experience points gained by the system, along with all the skills they have acquired and raised through their lifetime as an Apprentice.
Once the process was over, her body would tier up, in a sense, becoming stronger. She would gain a new evolution for her class, becoming stronger as a whole.
But then he noticed something odd. The process was going longer than usual, and even Val frowned in worry.
“Strange, she should’ve been done by now,” Val said, turning to Zeke. “She can’t speak at the moment. Zeke, can you check what’s going on in her body?
Zeke nodded as he also wanted to check what was happening. If Val herself was worried, there was clearly something going on. He opened his Internal Senses, seeing her inner workings again.
The Fire Mana coursing through her wasn’t just spreading throughout her channels now. They were invading her entire body. He squinted, not really realizing why that was the case. As far as he knew, mana doesn’t necessarily get out of the channels unless it was intended by the user.
Yet Fire Mana continuously remained in her body, trying to cover all of it from within. His heart raced when he realized that not only her own natural mana was getting devoured, but even her stamina and health was getting absorbed.
“Val, the Fire mana is eating her alive!” Zeke shouted, causing Val to widen her eyes.
“What?”
“It’s… it’s that supposed to happen? Is the Fire Mana supposed to just go all over your body?”
“No! It’s not!” Val shouted back, not realizing that she was starting to panic. She ran towards Myra, who was now shivering so much that she started groaning in pain. Val tried to touch her shoulder, but recoiled after an intense steam trailed from her body.
“She’s overheating like mad…” Val looked over at her carefully, not even minding the burn she just had. “If this keeps up, she’ll get burned up.”
Val turned to Zeke, but he already knew what she was going to ask. If he was honest, this might be beyond his usual skill.
But Myra was in trouble. He put aside his doubts and worries as he ran forward. “Leave her to me!”