Name: Reigner
Race: Human
level: 1
Class: Summoner
Health: 1240/1240
HP Regen: 1.5/minute
Stamina: 2370/2370
SP Regen: 78/minute
Mana: 163/285 (+100)
MP Regen: 13/minute
Strength: 96
Constitution: 74
Dexterity: 89
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 9
My mana had increased over double from the increases to intelligence and leveling up. There was also a bonus from the black robe. I assume it’s from the robe, I doubt it’s from my sandals. Sera was so thoughtful in her choice. However, even with the bonus, mana remained to be my weakest resource. Luckily, I didn’t need to worry about my other stats for a while and could just dump everything into intelligence and wisdom. They will catch up fast.
With that in mind I appraised the glass marble that was aggressively returned.
[Summoned Mana Marble]
Quality: Crude (Magical)
Weight: 600 g
Value: 1 copper – 10 copper
I frowned at the small sphere of glass. The current information the skill provides is next to useless. Well, At least I can see how much something weighs. I’ll have to rely on the spell description to keep track of summoned item changes for now.
Summon Mana Marble
Rank: 1
Cost: 45 MP
Effect: 18 MP (base 15)
Description: Summons your mana into a physical form. The marble, when activated, will give the holder some mana. Higher rank increases effect. Summoned item will vanish after 10 hours.
The mana increased for both the cost and effect. I tossed the marble with my free hand and placed it into my storage after catching it. I should summon a bunch of these and store them in my pouch for when I need more mana. No need to horde them as they only last for ten hours. Also, constantly summoning them will help rank up the spell.
“…even listening?” Richard asked from next to me.
I looked around and saw that we had walked past the others and were now standing on top of a small rise. “Ah… sorry I got a bit distracted.” I gave him a small grin. “Let’s meet up with the others.”
Richard walked next to me as we backtracked “Well, I’m glad to see you are taking it seriously at least.”
I nodded my head sagely, “It’s not too bad since I’m only level one. Mana won’t be an issue when I have more points in intelligence and wisdom.”
Yui and Miko waved and started jogging towards us.
Richard stopped walking. “What are you talking about?”
“Well Intelligence is currently my lowest stat. I realised I can mitigate that by storing summoned mana marbles and using them when I get low.”
“Mana is important yes, but that is not what I’m referring to.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. “Getting on the wrong side of the city rulers can mean a death sentence.”
“What means a death sentence?” asked Yui with Miko right behind her.
Richard removed his hand and turned to the others. “Reigner was just threatened by someone from GorikTar.”
I scoffed. “He hardly threatened me.”
“He basically said he is going to kill you if you move too far away from the tower knights.”
“You think so? Sounded like he was just giving a warning.”
“Do you know who it was?” Yui asked.
I scratched the side of my jaw. “Yeah, it was Khem… something”
“Khemrok, of the AxeTar Clan.” Richard supplied.
Yui’s eyebrows furrow and looked concerned. “AxeTar is a powerful clan inside GorikTar, and Khemrok is the clanleader’s son.” She turned towards me “It’s strange that he is on the first floor. He is at least level twenty. Hopefully he has some important business here and will forget about you.”
“Actually, he knew who Reigner was, called him an outworlder” Richard said.
Miko gasped. “I have heard stories of climbers pissing off orc nobles only to be found dead, days later.”
I combed my fingers through my beard. “I don’t think it’s as serious as that. He did not seem like a ‘strikes from the shadows’ type to me.”
“That’s true. AxeTar Clan are the frontliners for GorikTar and mostly consist of Warriors, Berserkers, and Planewalkers.” Yui said.
Miko jumped into the middle of the group “I’m bored of all this talking. Can we go to the goblin camp now? We have enough rabbit meat. Now we just need more slime cores.”
While Yui guided us to the goblins, Richard asked me about my mana marble spell. Apparently, most casters can only channel mana and need to buy an expensive item if they want to store it for later use. Richard offered to channel the cost of mana to me in exchange for some mana marbles. Miko overheard the conversation and asked to buy some as she couldn’t channel mana. I agreed to both requests and supplied them with three mana marbles each. Yui did not want any, explaining that she had her own mana storage device.
Stolen novel; please report.
After summoning the third marble for Miko, a notification appeared.
+1 Intelligence.
Gaining stats from using magic felt satisfying. No sweat, no aching muscles, no repeating the same movement for hours on end for a single stat increase. Nope, just the sweet use of mana and spellcasting. I don’t even need to be standing. I could be doing this while sitting or even just laying down. I love magic.
“I expected my spell to rank up again after how much I have been casting it recently.”
“Oh, I know this one!” Miko said as she walked in front of me. “Your class spells and whatever, can’t be a higher rank than your class level.”
Yui was the first one to reach the top of the hill. “Damn, a group is already camping the goblins.”
Camping was a term used in old school rpg games where you would pick a location, usually where creatures appeared, to sit at while killing anything that respawns. The word camping stuck because typically people would spend hours or even a few days in the same location. Sounds boring but it was actually a lot of fun, especially when you were aiming for a rare item drop or grouped up with friends.
Miko moved to Yui’s side “Aw. I was hoping to loot some iron from the forges.”
Down the hill I could see a goblin fort surrounded by shabby stone walls. At the gate of the wall were a group of adventurers in battle against a small swarm of goblins.
The sound of heavy breathing accompanied Richard as he joined us at the top of the hill. “Maybe we can camp another part of the keep.”
Yui started walking. “No harm in asking”
As we made our way towards the keep, I could see that the group of adventurers were a team of dwarves. They were all wearing heavy leather under chainmail, and they all had a shield paired with either a hammer, axe, or pickaxe. I couldn’t identify their class types from just observation, and reflectively used inspect, only to remember I didn’t have access to it anymore.
I slapped my hand over forehead. This new class will take some adjusting.
Miko’s ears twitched, and she turned to look at me. I gave her a little wave and she smiled before turning back towards the battle in front of us.
This could be a good opportunity to test out one of my new spells. I checked over the description.
Identify
Rank: 0
Cost: 20 MP
Description:
Focus on a person or creature to see their Health, level, class, and race. Identify needs to be at the level or higher of the target for all information to be displayed. A bar representing current health will be displayed above the targets head for five minutes.
It’s a lot like my old skill only this one also provided a health bar. That will be handy for keeping track of friend and foe alike. I casted the spell on Miko since she was right in front of me. The spell was almost instant and took less than a second to cast.
A window displaying information formed next to Miko in my vision.
[Miko]
Health: ??? / 100%
Class: ???
Level: ???
Race: Half-kin. (Half Beastkin, Half Human)
Miko’s body stiffened, and she stopped walking. “Watch out!” she moved into a defensive stance and pulled out a shield and mace from storage. “Someone just identified me.” Yui grabbed the hilt of her sword and scanned the area around us. “Do you know what direction the spell came from?”
Miko turned to look directly behind me “Up the hill, behind us!”
“Um, that was me. I was trying out the identify spell.” I reached up and scratched the back of my head. “I didn’t think you would notice.”
Miko sighed and put her shield back into storage. “You really are a noob.”
Yui smiled and started walking down the hill again.
“The spell lets you estimate how many attacks it would take to kill a creature, or person.” Said Richard from behind me. “Never use it on someone you have just met unless you mean them harm.”
“It’s considered a hostile spell by adventurers.” Miko said, holding her mace by her side. “If someone means you harm and walks away with that information...They would know how much damage you could take, or worse. How much damage it would take to kill you in one attack.”
Yui turned her head towards me. “It is often considered self defence for adventurer to kill someone that casts identify on them.”
Richard chuckled. “My brother and I used to prank each other all the time with it. Imagine sitting on the privy only to be hit with that spell.”
Miko laughed “Crappy place for that to happen.”
Turning to Richard I asked, “So how do you keep track of everyone’s health?”
“I’m in a group with Miko and Yui and that gives me access to their health, stamina, and mana levels. Now that you mention it. I’m surprised Yui has not invited you.”
Yui stumbled mid step and hopped a little to catch her balance “Ah that’s because… Well, I have a very good reason why I have not invited our newest member into the party yet.”
Miko laughed and pushed Yui’s shoulder forcing her to take a step to the side. “You mean that you forgot, right?”
“No way” Yui chuckled. “A team leader forgetting something like that would be terrible. I just thought… that Reigner would not get much experience and… should wait until he is level five before joining us.”
“That makes sense.” Richard said from my side. “Since we are a higher level, the experience from anything you kill will be divided up between the four of us, and since we are higher level, we would be taking an even greater chunk of XP from you. It will be better for you to kill outside the group, so you get the maximum experience. Once you get closer to level ten the penalty will not be so severe.”
I had no idea this world had so many game mechanics, no wonder gaming lingo is used frequently. Was it the same in the last world? Only time I worked with the support group was when there was some kind of puzzle or secret door discovered that I couldn’t just cut my way through. I don’t remember ever forming a group apart from being told “here, these four will be following and supporting you in the tower.”
I give a sigh at the memory. I only got along with Lilly, but I feel that was only because she really disliked Grafoki, the priest. They constantly argued about what was superior, faith, or sorcery. That being said it made sense people could feel identify spell used on them. None of the support team were able to use their information spells on me before and no one mentioned anything whenever I used inspect on them. I knew inspect was special since I could not use mana. Maybe that’s why it never kept track of the target’s health. I had to use the skill again if I wanted to see any changes.
Did Khemrok use identify on me? That could mean he saw my impressive hp pool. That could be a reason why he stopped being so aggressive. Hmm, Perhaps that orc was not as friendly as I first thought. “Okay, so long story short, I should not use the identify spell on those dwarves over there.”
“Not unless you want to fight with them.” Yui said as we got closer to the group. “On that note, leave the talking to me”
The dwarves finished killing the last goblin and took a moment to catch their breath. One of them noticed us and elbowed the dwarf next to them. The only difference I could see between the dwarves were their beards. Each one was braided differently with their own individual and unique decorations. Otherwise, apart from the weapons they were using, they all looked exactly alike.
One of them, who was carrying a shield and a combination of hammer and pickaxe, broke from the group and stepped towards us. An anvil with an axe in front was engraved on their pauldron.
Yui bowed towards the dwarf “Greetings to the Axe and Anvil. I am Yui of Ex-terra and I was hoping we could share the fort with you.”
The dwarf spat some blood onto the grass next to him and looked each of us over. Once the dwarf reached me his eyes widened slightly and a grin formed on his face. “Hah, you be that new fella from yesterday morning. What are you doing wearing robes? You have a warrior’s body. My smith ancestors are crying for all the plate armour you could be wearing.”
“Plate is overrated. It’s like you are planning to get hit. While this is not my normal wear, I must admit it’s way more comfortable than heavy armour. And besides,” I summoned a mana marble and toss it over to the dwarf. “I’m a caster, not a warrior.”
The dwarf caught the marble and looked it over. “Oh, not bad for a baby mage. But being a caster is no excuse for not wearing heavy armour.” The dwarf stored the marble and concentrated. His hand glowed purple with magic that formed into the shape of a bottle. The dwarf tossed the bottle to me. “I’m also a caster but you don’t see me dallying about in a dress.”
I used appraisal after catching the bottle.
[Dwarven mead]
Quality: Fine (Magical)
Weight: 1.1 kg
Value: 50 copper – 1 silver
“It’s my family recipe. Might only be an imitation of the real thing but it still provides a small boost to mood and mana regeneration.”
Richard’s eyes lit up next to me “Amazing, you are able to choose what you can summon with your spell?”
“Aye, if I can make it, I can conjure it.”
I smiled widely to the dwarf and walk up to him to shake his hand. “Thank you. I’ll drink it tonight in celebration of my first day in the tower.”
The dwarf laughed “Just be sure to drink it before this time tomorrow. Now, as for the fort. We are making our way to the top floor and plan to camp the captain for a few days. You are welcome to the rest of it.”
The dwarf grinned at me before looking back to his team.
I could see huge bulging neck muscles as he turned. From what I knew, dwarfs had inherent bonuses to increasing strength. If he was a caster, I doubted he placed many, if any, attribute points into strength. “What’s your name?”
“I be Torva Flatpick. Pleasure to meet you, Reigner.” Torva nodded towards Yui “Miss Gushiken” and walked back to his group.
We waited a moment as the group of dwarves moved deeper into the fort.
“She was nice.” said Richard.
“Yeah, I hope you plan to share that wine.” Miko’s eyes were glued to the bottle in my hands and I could hear the smacking of her lips.
I placed the bottle into my storage for safety. “You are telling me that was a female? But She had a full beard.”
Richard laughed “The only way to tell is by their name. Unless you are a dwarf yourself, or so I have read.”
Yui stepped over to the open gate of the fort and looked to the left. “Let’s start at the slime pit and let Reigner grind a little.”
“Oh, let’s not forget the forges” said Miko.
Richard cast a spell and an orb of light appeared over everyone’s head. “Well, you are the tank. Lead us down.”