Up until now, the only time I’d seen new class skills was when I’d grabbed the skills leading up to them. To that end, I’d expected maybe one new option for my recent purchase of Status Resistance, but that was it.
That was, however, not what I was seeing now. Sitting there on the fourth tier of my Arcane Augmenter room was a new option, joining the boots, the gloves, and the monocles already present. Keeping in the theme of somewhat lackluster wearable items, my new skill option took the form of a plain leather bag.
Examining it, however, proved the bag was anything but plain.
Arcane Storage
Grants the user a persistent storage space, the size of which is determined by their maximum mana and Spatial Magic level. Items placed in storage will be held in stasis, allowing for perfect preservation. Barring living, sentient, system-granted beings, the user can store anything that will fit within.
Can store any at-rest unowned object within five meters. Objects taken out of storage can similarly be summoned anywhere within five meters.
Given its reliance on Spatial Magic, I could only guess that I’d gained the new option after the grand magus had taught me my first spatial spell.
On first glance, the skill didn’t have much going for it that a regular storage bag didn’t. Certainly, it didn’t have as much variety or utility as some of the other skills in the room like Mana Feet. Still, it had three huge selling points for me.
First, it scaled on my Spatial Magic level and my maximum mana. I didn’t have a good way of knowing exactly how large it could get, but given my already-high Wisdom and my goal of quickly training up my spatial prowess, I had high hopes for the eventual size. Years down the line, who knew? Maybe I’d have an entire palace’s worth of storage space if I leveled enough.
Second, the ability to summon things directly into my hand without reaching into my bag was big. Not that it had come up too often in the past, but I could imagine there were plenty of times where, in the heat of the moment, I wouldn’t have the time to reach into my spatial bag to grab what I needed.
Third and most importantly, though, all of our spatial devices weren’t working here. Of course, there was a chance that whatever storage lock was disabling our bags might also disable my class skill, but I was mostly sure that wouldn’t happen. I hadn’t been blocked from summoning my soulbound armor or weapons, so if this skill worked in a similar way, I strongly doubted it would be blocked.
There was a real chance that the three of us might be stuck here for a long, long time. Having to physically lug everything around for months or even years on end would be taxing if not impossible. Case in point, there was no way I was going to be able to drag all of the gryphon corpses back to the cabin. Even if I did, their meat would quickly go bad unless Verin could keep some sort of massive freezer up and running.
As had previously proven to be the case with my Gloves of the Arcanist, the only catch proved to be the cost.
Would you like to select Arcane Storage for 5 class points?
It was more than I wanted to spend, but given my recent influx of points from binding an Epic weapon, I was sitting comfortable at eight total points. Deciding the skill was a necessity for my time here, I decided to bear the high cost and pull the trigger.
You have learned Arcane Storage. Your current storage capacity is: 4 cubic meters.
I didn’t have a good mental benchmark for how much that was, but my spatial reasoning was very literally magically augmented now. Some quick visualization let me know that I was working with about as much space as two door-wide reach-in closets. If not yet a palace, it was more than enough for a few gryphons.
Regrettably, no new skill appeared on the fifth tier of the Arcane Augmenter room, but I doubted I’d have enough points to purchase it even if I did. With my remaining points, I debated between grabbing some Weaponmaster or some Armorist skills, but ultimately decided Armorist was more important. As I’d just proven, my new hammer already packed enough of a punch, whereas the only reason I was able to fight so hard in the first place was the strength of my armor. Of the three of us, I was also clearly the “tank” of the party, too.
If we encountered enemies later on that were actually able to hurt me — either by puncturing my armor or through some sort of unconventional status effect — I had few illusions that any of us would be surviving. More than that, if I found an enemy I wasn’t strong enough to damage, as long as it couldn’t damage me either, I could always just run. Vice versa, that might not be an option.
As it stood, my current Armorist skill ranks were as follows.
Arcane Arsenal Skill Options
Bind Armor - 5/5
Arcane Armor - 5/5
Resist Magic - 4/5
Mana Sink - 0/5
Overload Armor - 1/5
Enhanced Physical Hardiness - 1/5
Force Dispersal - 2/5
Status Resistance - 5/5
Reactive Armor - 0/1
Overload Resistances - 0/1
Of all of them, the only one I had little interest in was Mana Sink. Without too many seriously mana-heavy skills or spells, my already high Wisdom was more than enough to keep me topped off during most fights.
Otherwise, there were a number of skills that had done well by me that still weren’t maxed out, and I heavily considered throwing my remaining points into Resist Magic, Force Dispersal, Overload Armor, or Enhanced Physical Hardiness. At the end of the day, though, I didn’t necessarily need to do better in the things I was already great at.
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With Arcane Armor at the full five out of five, I’d yet to find anything capable of damaging me with slashing or piercing damage. Resist Magic wasn’t nearly as powerful, but it had been a long time since I’d been seriously injured from straight magic damage either. I could stand to have slightly higher resistances if we ever found part of the dungeon based around frost or fire mana, but for now, training those skills was more important than a few extra points in Enhanced Physical Hardiness. As for Force Dispersal, it already overlapped with the bonus I’d gained from passing the Strength threshold.
The new skill I’d gained from putting points into Status Resistance turned out to be Overload Resistances, a one-off skill that upgraded my Overload Armor to enhance both Status Resistance and Enhanced Physical Hardiness. As its effectiveness scaled off of Overload Armor, though, I had little desire to grab the latter skill until I put more points into the prior.
If there was anything I was actually weak to, it would probably be slow deaths — burying, drowning, starving, etc — or surprise attacks, like the damage I’d taken from the panther’s first blow.
The first, I couldn’t fully protect against yet. As for the second, it was nice that I had the perfect skill waiting for me.
Reactive Armor
Automatically summons your most protective armor whenever you would be hit by an attack which catches you unaware. Negates any bonuses that opposing attacks would gain for being surprise attacks.
For the second time in short succession, I was met with an unpleasantly high cost.
Would you like to select Reactive Armor for 3 class points?
As much as it would drain me dry, I decided it was worth it.
You have learned Reactive Armor. As it is your most protective set, your plate armor will be summoned to defend against unexpected attacks.
Given my recent goal-setting, I promised myself I would start running my class trials again soon, but opted to wait until I was back in the cabin. With no more points to spend, I made a quick exit from my class space.
Making a beeline for the closest slain gryphon, I attempted to use my new class skill to store it away. Much as I’d expected, it disappeared. With only a single thought more, it reappeared before me.
That would have been embarrassing if not.
I managed to stash a few more bodies before my storage space was mostly filled. The rest, I’d earmarked for two important uses.
First, I found a decently large rocky overhang, abandoning my hammer for a much simpler mana blade. Even after overloading it with fire mana, it took some effort to carve into the solid rock, but eventually I managed to make a thick line in the ground from one end to the other.
Swapping the blade back for the hammer, I slammed my weapon into the ground as hard as I could.
Instantly, the rock snapped, breaking along the faultline and falling much like a felled tree. It tumbled down the mountain for a while, and I dove after it, stopping myself with Featherfoot when it finally came to a rest. A bit more hacking and chiseling away yielded a large block of stone in the perfect dimensions.
Cooking pot secured. It would take a long time to work it into the right shape, but if there was one resource I had a lot of right now, it was time.
Having gotten one step closer to a soup-filled future, I did my best to fill the small remainder of my space with feathers, plucking as many as I could. It was here that I was relieved to discover that the plumage of the gryphons was not the part that gave them their high defense, their hard, stony hides covered with soft, bird-like feathers.
If nothing else, the three of us would have some pillows to look forward to.
Enjoying my heightened mental clarity, slim though it was, I decided to keep both my armor and my hammer summoned as much as I could from now on.
Knowing the others would be excited to see what I’d brought them, I descended the mountain and began the long walk home.
----------------------------------------
It was with no small measure of consternation that Verin found herself once again alone when she awoke. Unlike last time, she was not nearly as worried. On the flip side, she was far, far more perturbed.
“Does she believe this is what constitutes properly informing me?” Having looked about their make-shift camp grounds, Verin impatiently tapped her foot by a hastily scrawled message in the dirt. Happy though she was that Tess was somewhat better, at this rate, her friend would be the death of her.
With not much else to do, Verin spent the time practicing her ice magic, materializing as much ice as she could and casting her more advanced spells. Each cast was only a drop in the bucket towards reaching the next level, but it wasn’t as though she was foolish enough to wander off seeking real fights. She’d need multiple more levels before she seriously considered doing so, at least on her own.
When finally someone wandered into the clearing, Verin had expected it to be Cal, much like last time. If for no other reason, she was half-convinced that Tess would return with another set of logs or some such nonsense, making a ruckus as she came.
But no. Tess simply strolled towards the cabin, entirely unconcerned.
That, however, only made one of them.
“Lady Tess. Despite your evident firm intentions to cause me worry, might I ask for your assurances that the blood covering you is not your own? Furthermore, is there a reason you presently appear to be outfitted for war?”
Bedecked in a full set of plate armor, Tess hefted a hammer, the likes of which Verin had never before seen. Not having previously fought alongside her friend, Verin had nearly mistaken her for a stranger. Even before seeing Tess’s face, however, the ridiculous paint job on the armor cleared up any suspicions. Seemingly intent on embarrassing his adoptive granddaughter, Chamber Head Suds had commissioned the armor in the style of a miner, with a paint job that made the set look like overalls. Even the helmet looked like nothing so much as a hard hat.
She likely would have commented on that if not for all the blood.
Tess looked down at herself as if seeming to realize her own state for the first time. In a flash, her armor vanished before reappearing a moment later, now completely clean.
“Hi Verin. I’m fine. I just got a new weapon.”
Verin waited for her to elaborate, but no words followed. “Is there anything else you would like to say?”
Tess seemed to consider this for a moment before understanding dawned on her.
“Oh yeah. I got a spatial skill. Look. Feathers.”
Before Verin could even think to ask what she meant, multiple bloody gryphons materialized out of nothing. It took every ounce of her Etiquette not to cry out, and even so, she nearly sent a wave of icicles out before realizing the beasts were already dead. They thumped into the ground with a macabre finality.
Under normal circumstances, a stream of choice words would have been filling Verin’s head as she decided how to gently lay into her friend for such a scare. In this case, though, all she could do was stare at the corpses in disbelief.
“Lady Tess, are… Did you slay these by yourself?”
Her armored friend merely shrugged before wordlessly walking into the cabin. Stunned, Verin made no move to follow.
Neither Cal nor I were able to scratch even a single gryphon. Was she always this strong? Verin was well aware that Tess had performed admirably in her dueling course, but this was another thing entirely.
In part, it was sobering. Almost humbling, even.
Much more than that, though, it was thrilling. If Verin were to accompany her on a similar hunt, her levels would rocket upwards far faster than from simply standing in one place and casting ice magic.
Doing her best to hide her distaste, Verin looked about the empty clearing with its primitive closet of a cabin.
And if that’s the case, perhaps we will not be stuck here for nearly as long as I thought.