"The number of mana aspects is near infinite, with anything from a concept like life mana to a physical thing like sword mana being both common and not very complex, and while similar aspects can be used in the same spells for very similar effects, it should not be forgotten that they are in fact different, with their own strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly reactions to stimuli, lest you end up dead or possibly worse."
-Zara, head librarian of the Royal Magic Academy
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It wasn't until sunset that the others came back to the cave, though the meditation skill seemed to help me focus enough that the hours until sunset flew by, though I still didn't feel particularly different after spending all that time absorbing the crystal energy, though the amount of energy that escaped my grasp before I could integrate it was higher than what I actually succeeded with, so I definitely had room to improve. Judging by the jovial mood and the smug look on Jason's face, I assumed that nothing had gone wrong and that he had reached level five.
"So, what'd you get for level 5?"(Mason)
"Nuh-uh dude, you gotta reveal yours first."(Jason)
At Jason's waggling finger, I sent the skill description to everyone and waited for them to read mine while I read Jason's that he had sent me shortly after I sent mine.
Skill: [Trick Shot 1/10] Allows the user to alter the cards trajectory in impossible ways(degree improves with level)
Damn, that skill sounded cool, but it wasn't actually all that descriptive on what it could actually do.
"Well, that explains why you are sitting so close to the dungeon, what's it leaking?"(Leo)
"Crystal, how much can you alter the cards?(Mason)
Inwardly hating Leo's vastly superior common sense that allowed him to instantly tell that the dungeon was a source of elemental energy, I quickly redirected the conversation to Jason who only smirked before throwing a card straight into the air from his outstretched right hand only for it to curve and land perfectly in his left.
"Nothing too major right now, but if this is what it does at level one with no practice, I can't wait to see what it'll do later."(Jason)
His face told me that he thought that his skill was better than mine, and while it was admittedly more immediately useful, I still thought mine was better in the long run.
One brief discussion to confirm our plan going forwards later, we started to prepare for dinner with me starting a fire outside the cave while everyone else skinned the headless turkeys that they hunted after I left. One tasteless meal later, everyone started setting up for the night, Leo setting up his sleeping bag while Jackson and Jason look for softer dirt and some leaves to sleep on, but I was actually feeling pretty awake since I had spent most of the day sitting down and meditating, who knows maybe the skill can even substitute sleep at later levels.
Sitting down near the dungeon once again, I quickly entered the state of meditation and began absorbing the crystal energy once more. The process itself felt kind of like pulling magnets apart, with the sliver of energy that I was currently able to remove trying to reunite with the mass that it had originally belonged to, and succeeding if I lost concentration. Once the energy was actually inside of my body, the process was more like flattening dough, as I tried to spread the energy as thin as possible and spread it around my whole body as it merges with me. It was the same for both earth and crystal energies, but they were pretty similar as elements so I wasn't confident enough to say that it would be like that for every element.
After an undetermined amount of time, I gave up on meditation as my tiredness was causing me to lose the energy more often than not, so the skill substituting sleep was a resounding no, at least currently. Thankfully, the energy leaked through the portal faster than I could absorb it so I wasn't worried about wasting it, though it did seem to dissipate on its own once it got to a low enough density or high enough distance from the portal.
Trudging to my sleeping spot made me reconsider which element I should attune to, as the thought of shaping the earth into a proper bed filled my head as I laid on the hard and uneven surface, but my musing didn't last long as I quickly fell into the sweet embrace of sleep, dreaming of launching spikes at my foes and encasing them in crystalline prisons.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Seemingly right after I closed my eyes, I felt myself being shaken awake. With a grumble of general discontent I cracked open my eye to see Leo standing over me holding a turkey kebab in one hand and a large stick that he was poking me with in the other.
"Rise and shine, it's time for me an Jackson to get our levels."(Leo)
Getting up with a grumble, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and took the kebab from Leo's hand before leaving the cave to see that everyone else was ready to go. Considering that all my possessions were on my person, I didn't have any reason to delay so we promptly set out to hunt some turkeys.
While me and Jason handled the turkeys pretty easily, that was mostly because they were incredibly unsuited to fighting people at a range, as even though they were very fast they weren't smart enough to zigzag in their charges so it was very easy to kill them before they could even make it to us. That said, Jackson and Leo could easily handle them in a two on one, so the general plan was to let them handle any lone turkeys while I stun any large groups and let them finish them off, with Jason only participating if we accidentally lured more than one or if any other unforeseen problems occur.
With our plan set, we once again started our hunt of the turkeys, this time setting off in the opposite direction as the previous day. And after about 30 minutes of walking we found our first group of turkeys, it was a group of three so we decided to take them on with the original plan. Giving Leo and Jackson some time to get ready to sprint in so that they can end the fight in the few seconds that I can keep the turkeys stunned, I started to circulate my lightning and empower it with mana while focusing on the stunning properties of lightning.
Since it was still the start of the day, I only put in 80 mana, despite knowing that it would likely do little damage if any when split amongst the three of them. Receiving a nod from Leo and Jackson I fired off the bolt towards the turkeys, trying to focus on keeping the lightning present inside their bodies for as long as possible through my mental connection with the energy.
Using the zap of lightning as their cue, Leo and Jackson sprung forth in a sprint towards the two furthest turkeys and quicky decapitated them, with Jackson using Jason's knife as it was easier to use than his spear for the purposes of this plan. Shortly after finishing off their respective prey, the third turkey started to shake off its spasms and stand up, only to find its neck sliced by a card.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 5 Turkey x3 and gained 150 EXP
With all three turkeys dead we had jason hold them upside down to bleed them out while we checked for loot orbs, of which there were none, then we set out to find the next group of exp.
And so, the rest of the day was spent hunting turkeys with ever improving efficiency, managing to get both Jackson and Leo to level 5 before the end of the day, with myself gaining 300 EXP and Jason gaining 450 from our assistance in the fights. Skill wise, both of their classes gave them an active skill, with Leo getting slash that increased sharpness and momentum and Jackson getting power thrust that increases speed and penetration.
Over the course of the day we hunted a grand total of 15 turkeys and while we only carried the corpses of four of them, we did manage to obtain three more loot orbs of common quality. From those orbs we got gloves that gave +2 STR which went to Jackson, a magic firestarter that went to Jason, and a ring that gave +2 END that we gave to Leo.
After returning to our cave with around an hour until sunset, we all eyed the hovering portal excitedly. But even with all of us wanting to enter the portal as soon as possible, we were all tired from hunting turkeys and decided that it would be a better idea to delay our first delve until the next day when we were fully rested and ready.
While the others spent the remaining time before night testing out their new skills and familiarizing themselves with them, I once again sat in front of the portal and started my meditation. Quickly settling into the state where I could feel the elements around me, I started pulling the now familiar crystal energy into my body.
While the process itself did not feel any different from when I had first started, with both the size and density of the energy that I could pull remaining the same, I had no doubt that the skill was working as with every sliver of energy that I assimilated into myself I could feel myself becoming more familiar with the energy that I was absorbing, even if there wasn't any more apparent effects to it yet.
Nonetheless, the act of meditation itself helped to relax me so even if it wasn't as beneficial as I thought it was for my affinity gain it was still a good idea to do before something as possibly dangerous as a dungeon delve. After all bringing anything but a clear mind to a fight was just asking to make mistakes.
Over the course of the day, we had made more concrete plans about how to act when we do go into the dungeon, including me asking to try meditation while inside to see if the energy was denser there and what effect it would have on the skill if it was. Thankfully, my friends had agreed that it was a good thing to try, so none of them had any complaints about guarding me for the few minutes that it would take to find out, assuming that we managed to find a safe enough area first of course.
Since we already knew that the dungeon was crystal aspected and that it almost certainly took place in a cave, we assumed that the monsters would be defence heavy but beyond that we had no idea. We also didn't know how large the dungeon would be, but we did know that similar to the tutorial, the deeper in you went the higher level the monsters and since we were equal to the lowest level monsters that would appear, we would be sticking near the entrance and unless the dungeon was big enough to get us to level 10 in one delve, which I doubted, an actual dungeon clear would be for the future.
While you do get better rewards for clearing a dungeon when you are the one to discover it and/or are delving it for the first time, with both stacking to give far better rewards if you clear it on the first try after being the first to discover it, it was still more valuable to use it to grind experience than waiting and hoping to get something good, especially since we would still get good loot for the discovery bonus.
Our general plan for delving itself was pretty simple, as we knew that dungeons would reset after about an hour with no one inside. Our idea was to stick to the fringes and not fight anything above our own level or even attempt the boss until we reach level 10. Hopefully we would all be better equipped by then as we would have the loot bonus for the rest of the tutorial once we entered for the first time in addition to the tutorial benefit of everything having a chance to drop loot orbs.
*YAWN*
Using my yawn as an excuse to end my meditation session, I went over to my usual sleeping spot and quickly welcomed the sweet embrace of sleep. The next morning came quickly, and after a rushed breakfast of tasteless turkey, we found ourselves standing in front of the familiar, but still slightly eerie, dungeon entrance that had tempted us for so long.
"You guys ready?"(Leo)
Looking around at us as we all responded with nods, Leo took the first step into the dungeon and we could all feel it pull at us in a clear, but resistable, way since Leo considered us members of his party. Offering no resistance to the pulling of the dungeon, I saw my surroundings warp for a second before finding myself elsewhere.