“See, I knew you’d come around. I never doubted you.” Oh thank Hagrid. I thought I'd have to solo this shit. I could barely deal with the Lizardmen, there’s no way I'd make it through alive from this by myself.
Grifith had finally come.
“Yeah yeah whatever. It took me a while to get the quest from Luke. He had a whole sob story he was going on about before I told him I was going to go with you.”
“Really? Cause he just called me a bitch and told me to come back alive.” Grifith Laughed at that.
“That sounds about right. So before we go, what preparations have you made? Did you bring enough food? What about a light source for when we get to the Dark Forest? It’s called ‘Dark’ for a reason, you know.”
At that, I summoned the Ball of Light from my ring.
“I have 83 rations in storage that won’t go bad, along with most of a 300 gallon water skin. Good enough for you?”
“That should last us for a bit. What about wardings for when we need to sleep? They should keep the monsters away.”
“I have my barriers, and I'll wake up if they take any damage and they can take A LOT of damage before dissipating. That’s good enough for me.”
He continued going through a checklist until he got to the point of monsters.
“So what do you know about taking down a Dire Spider? They’re one of the most common monsters in the Dark Forest, so you’ll need to know a lot about them.”
I took out the bestiary I had bought a while ago and handed it to him as I recited from the book.
“Dire Spider can shoot venom at you from a distance of up to 30 feet away, the distance increasing the higher up in the trees the spider is. Their weak points are their small heads or their large abdomens, with the heads being an instant kill. Their legs and thorax are hard to penetrate due to their thick concentrated exoskeletons, but the heads and abdominal areas are rather easy to pierce due to lack of protection.”
Grifith looked impressed. He handed me the book back and I stored it again.
“I have the same book, so I'll be fine. I’m impressed at how much research you’ve done. Maybe you really do deserve this promotion more than I thought.”
I mock bowed and gave my thanks.
“So are you ready to run? We won’t be sprinting, but I'm prepared to jog for most of the day.”
Grifith nodded but suggested we walk and talk first. I aligned us to the direction we needed to go, and we started forwards.
“So tell me more about your skills. If we’re going to work together, I need to know what your current limits are and how much you can do before needing a break. The reason I hate working with casters so much is how often you all need mana breaks, though I haven't had much of an issue with how you worked with the goblins last time I saw you.”
I gave him a quick run down of my skills, and what each does for me. I paid extra attention to my Arcane Magic skill, since I planned on using it the most while we’re out there.
“I have it on good authority that I'll be getting something like a multi-casting modifier soon, so I want to get that as soon as possible so I can deal more damage per second than I do now. I’d also rather not have to rely on my explosions too much since I don't want the whole forest to know we’re there on day one.”
“Smart. I was going to suggest you use your single target skill more often anyways for the same reason.”
“So, that’s all of my skills. Mind telling me more of yours? All I know is that you have a monster detection skill, and that’s it. Actually, I don't know that much about you now that I think about it. Other than you trained a whole lot in the herbal field.”
Grifith laughed at that.
“I could say the same about you. You never talk about yourself and you ask questions that should be pretty common knowledge. So let’s not get personal and stick to professional and skill related topics. As for skills, my three passives include Monster Detection, Melee Combat Mastery, and Enhanced Body. I find it pretty coincidental that we share that specific skill.”
Coincidental indeed. But those are some pretty broad skills. Nothing seems to scream out as a main passive, though his Enhanced Body has to be decently high.
“I think the reason I was gaining so many levels when I was training you in running was because of that. I really did get the bonus skill experience for training someone how to properly use their skill.”
Okay, That’s a whole lot to unpack. Bonus experience? What the hell is bonus experience?!
Grifith looked at the confusion on my face and just shook his head.
“I swear Claff, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were living under a rock for the first 18 years of your life. Bonus experience can be earned from many things. One being teaching, the other being from having a teacher. Other bonus experiences can be earned through dangerous events, such as if your life is on the line. The whole reason people want to get promoted is so they can fight stronger monsters and their skills can grow faster because of it.”
Are you kidding me? The reason my skills have grown so fast is because I’ve been essentially trying not to shit my pants on the daily from how scared I was at the prospect of fighting strong monsters?! I know I've kept a mostly level head through all this crap, but I almost DIED a few days ago! And now I'm going to the freaking Dark Forest?! It makes so much sense!
“And you also get minor bonuses for killing monsters. Sheer quantity will do it, but stronger monsters give you a better bonus to your skills. The reason I love my farming spot is because of how often I get the monster killing bonus. I usually go for quantity kills, though I guess I'll be going for quality for this trip.”
Is that why my skills jumped so much while I was in the Slime Dungeon? I felt like they should’ve risen slower, but holy Hagrid everything seems to be making sense.
“Anyways, my active skills are mostly related to bladed weapons. I have the Dagger wielding skill that activates whenever I'm fighting a monster with a dagger. A sword wielding skill that has similar conditions attached to it. And I think I'll keep my third active skill secret for now. As for my gear, most of everything I need is stored in my enchanted bag. Though I guess you don’t need one of these with that storage skill you mentioned. I’ll admit, I kind of wished I had picked one up too. But oh well.”
I guess he can keep his third secret. But how are sword and dagger skills like that active if they’re conditional. Whatever. I guess I'll find out more as we go. I am mostly interested in that detection skill. I need to see if I can get Paris to make a ring for me that works similar to the skill. If I can use it in pulses, that would still be pretty awesome.
“Can you tell me more about how your detection skill works? It’ll be a big part of our safety when we get to the forest. I’d rather not have any surprises pop up when it could be avoided.”
“It tells me the direction and distance of any monster within a set radius of me. The radius increases with skill level, and it’s currently at level 16, mostly thanks to you. Before you came along with your barriers, it was stuck at level 10 for quite a while. But when I got the chance to meditate, I was gaining experience in it like crazy.”
“Nice to know. That practice helped me a lot too. I’m just saying, I could probably keep a barrier like that up almost indefinitely. Actually, I might try that later on. I can add effects to my barriers now that I couldn't before. Effects that drain any monster that touches the barrier of mana, stamina, and health. Every point drained from the monster goes towards making the barrier stronger.”
If I set that barrier up right where the Goblin spawns, then I could be getting a passive 5 kills per hour, taking time away for the barrier to actually drain the monster. That would be awesome. I’d just have to go by occasionally and pick up the drops. Or at least remove them from the area of the barrier. Oh I am so doing that when we get back. Speaking of experiments, I'll let him know about my quasi-flying ability.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Oh, by the way, I can use my barriers to float, to an extent. I have to climb the barriers like stairs, but when i’m at the top. I don't really need to keep casting it, I can just sit up there for quite a while.”
He looked confused until I started making my stairs. Each step takes half a second to cast, but after my foot leaves the step, I don't need to keep the barrier erected any longer, so it works pretty well.
I made enough steps this time to get my feet above Grifith’s head. I kept making a floor for myself, which required a bit of mental concentration, but I figured it’s pretty great exercise for 2 skills at the same time.
I cast my next floor “tile” over a hundred feet in front of me and started to pick up the pace. I had the next “tile” ready to go by the time I reached the end of my current one. I kept this up for over a mile, jogging along the way while maintaining my footing. It was quite the task, but it got easier as I got more used to doing it.
Eventually my seemingly endless mana supply started to get a little low, so I called it quits after going a second mile like that when I reached a meager 700 points of mana. I made a staircase of barriers to the side of Grifith and descended.
I decided to start casting mana bolts into the sky. That’s the skill I wanted to level more than anything currently.
I crave power!
“He joins us mortals yet again! GAH! A little warning next time you start firing, yeah? Ass hat.”
I laughed a little and kept firing into the sky. I empowered the bolts to cost 10 mana each, and I did my best to really focus on the pattern of each bolt I lost. I felt that concentration on the skill while using it also gave mild bonus experience, at least in the casting case anyway. I held each mana bolt in my hand for longer than necessary before loosing them.
Grifith and I had been jogging for almost an hour when I increased the pattern to cost 15 mana each. And I held them for 5 seconds before I let them fly away from me. I could tell that by studying the pattern, I was making myself more familiar with the spell, and I needed less concentration with each casting.
I had almost run out of mana when I felt a change in the magic. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn't been paying extra attention for the last while. I asked Grifith for a short break so I can get the level in my Arcane Magic that I was sure I had just earned. I pulled up the skills portion of my status.
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 9 [63%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv15 [92%]
Regeneration Lv16 [79%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv 13 [5%]
Barrier Magic Lv 12 [97%]
Game-like Storage Lv11 [12%]
Spell modification Multiple Projectiles has been learned.
I thought Paris said I'll be getting a multi-casting skill at 14? Is this not essentially the same thing?
“Alright, I'm ready. Thanks.” I told Grifith. I still felt extremely off put.
Was Paris lying to me? Did he really have a friend with Arcane Magic?
I pondered the skill, and examined the information that was forced into my brain closely. Grifith and I ran in silence for the next 6 hours. I was breathing rather hard, but I refused to give up. My body wasn’t tired, so I had no trouble keeping up. I began thinking my difficulty running was now mental more than anything.
Stay distracted. The more I focus on the problem, the bigger it feels. Let’s go back to the new modifier I learned. Should I try it now, or wait for later?
I decided on trying it now. I cast my Mana Bolt spell, then fired it. Then I added the modifier to the nest casting, holding it for examination.
Okay, it’s not a multicast. It just splits the one spell into many weaker versions. What if I add the charge modifier too, then add the Multiple Projectiles modifier. I see. It essentially is a multi casting modifier. Charging the spell to 10 mana then splitting the ensuing Mana Bolt in half left two original strength Mana Bolts, except with a single cast instead of two.
I fired the spell and felt that there was more to it.
Let me see. Huh. I can stagger the projectiles. So I don't necessarily need to hit two targets for it to work as intended. That would be awesome to throw an enemy off balance. Have the first bolt hit either left or right while the second bolt goes low. It’ll have the enemy second guessing foot work, at least.
I cast the spell again, this time splitting a regular charge Mana Bolt 5 ways. Each Bolt felt incredibly weak, like it would do barely any damage. But it would work as an attention grabber at least.
The amount of control I had over each bolt was limited to how much concentration I put into it. And given my superb mental capacity, I could put as much concentration as I needed in each cast of the spell. This would be GREAT Increased Mental Capacity training.
Oh this’ll be awesome. But that still leaves the question of what Paris was talking about for level 14. Maybe he just got the levels switched up and the mystery modifier I’d be getting is what he thought I'd be getting at this level. Oh well. I’ll get there soon enough.
I pulled up my resource list. My stamina was surprisingly high still, and my mana was steadily going up as I kept a lookout in the corner of my eye as I jogged along with Grifith.
Health 280/280
Stamina 160/280
Mana 40/900
My mana regeneration was up to just over 500 with all my equipment and modifiers.
I’ll give it a full hour before I really start playing with my new toy.
Turns out Grifith wanted to do lunch before we kept going. It was easily 3 pm, but I went with it. He pulled out his blue ration bag from his bag and went to town. He had a sandwich, and I pulled out a stew ration pack. It would probably be better heated up, but I was used to 3 day old cold pizza, so I wasn’t complaining.
We sat around for about 30 minutes. I was tempted to down a stamina potion, but I figured I could make it until the end of the day before passing out. We were maintaining a steady jogging pace that I could definitely keep up for the rest of the day. Any faster and I'd be passing out a lot sooner though.
Maybe I should ask Grifith for some Enhanced Body pointers. He seems perfectly fine, even calm.
I was breathing a little heavily still, but I was calming down the longer we sat. It almost hurt my heart when he got up and suggested we continue.
“Hey, give me some running pointers. I’m doing fine, but we could both get that teacher student bonus to ourskill if you help me out.”
He grinned, and I almost regretted it immediately. He saw my face and burst out laughing.
“I thought you’d never ask. You were pretty in the zone with those spells you were casting earlier. I’m surprised you haven't tripped yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “I made a bit of a breakthrough with how to use the spell modifier I learned. And the control it gives me over my spell is quite frankly amazing. I’ll be doing another experiment in a bit when I get more mana to play with.”
“Your Regeneration is truly impressive. What’s your hourly generation now? I have to bet at least a hundred, the way you’ve been slinging those bolts around.”
“Give me a second to check my math.”
“Again with the system ignorance. You know how you can pull up just your resources when you focus on it?” I nodded. “Okay, do that, then focus further and think of the idea of seeing your regeneration. It’ll pop right up right next to your total.”
I face palmed.
Of course that’s a system feature. I should tell him I was raised an orphan or something so he doesn’t think I'm dumber than he already does.
I pulled my UI up and did what he said.
Health 280/280 (266*/hr)
Stamina 174/280 (28/hr)
Mana 290/900 (501.6*/hr)
“Is now a good time to say I was raised an orphan?” I cringed saying that. I had wonderful and loving parents.
“It’s the only excuse I can think of to be THIS ignorant of common knowledge. So yeah, perfect time. What’s it say?”
“I have 501.6 mana per hour. What’s the asterisk next to it mean? It’s next to my health too.”
“Damn Claff. That’s impressive. And I see. Your regeneration gives you two resource pools and it’s probably conditional, yeah? If I had to guess, one pool is a primary pool and the other is secondary? If you were smart, you’d have health as your primary pool. And before you ask, my master had a similar regeneration skill, and it’s hypothesized that Bran has one too. That's how I know about it.”
“I see. And yes, I put health as my primary pool, and mana as my secondary pool.”
“Good, at least you aren’t stupid. Just ignorant. What have I gotten myself into?” He mumbled the last bit, just loud enough for me to hear. “Then let’s continue our journey. We still have a long way to go before it gets dark out.”
Rude. But he has a point I guess. I’m sure everyone knows this. But I'll be fine. I'll be at the top someday. Just you watch.
We ran for another hour before I started playing with my magic again.
I cast a standard 5 point Mana Bolt, then split it 5 ways. I put as much concentration as I could into the spell. I held it for a few minutes as a test. The pattern never once wavered, and the spell never once was interrupted.
When I was confident that the spell was stable, I moved the bolts around my hand in a circling pattern. They rotated around my hand in a slow and steady pattern in accordance with my wishes. I had full control of these projectiles. They moved where I wanted them too, and they wouldn’t dissipate until I either fired them or lost concentration on them.
I moved the little glowing arrows to form an arc pattern above and behind me. If i need to fire one, it would take a simple thought and however many projectiles i wanted would be sent flying at my target. They wouldn’t miss either, thanks to the guided projectile modifying effect either. That one was automatically applied to the spell, without me having to even think of it.
The best part of the spell was that I just needed to add an extra point of mana to the spell pattern for it to recharge the spent bolt. It would only charge the weakest version of the spell, but it still recharged non the less.
Grifith saw what I was doing and gave a look of both awe and terror.
“How do you have so much control over them? Aren’t most spells supposed to be you aim, cast, fire, and lose control of the spell when it fires? What are you even doing?”
“I’m taking advantage of an aspect of one of my modifiers. It lets me charge a spell with as much mana as I want before loosing the spell. By adding that modifier to the basic spell pattern, I can maintain control over the spell for as long as I have the necessary concentration. With my Increased Mental Capacity skill, I don't have to worry about having enough concentration.
In fact I have plenty to spare. I could probably add more bolts to my current formation, but I want to get a better grasp of what I'm doing with these 5 before adding more. I’ll be practicing firing and reforming bolts for a while, just so you know.”
“Thanks for the heads up. But man, you look kinda terrifying right now.”
Nice little ego boost right there.
I spent the next while firing and forming 1 minimally charged Mana Bolt every time my mana pool went up. I kept myself at a sort of equilibrium that way. Never going down in mana, but never going up either. I was constantly hovering around 800 mana in my pool.
Every time I added a new bolt to my arc pattern around my body, I ensured that it was far enough away from my body so as to not come close to me when I fired it. I came close once, but quickly learned to adjust.
I eventually fired all the bolts in my arc at a bird that was flying by. It fell from the sky after the first bolt hit, then every bolt after that just made it worse.
I didn’t bother getting the drops. It’s probably something like a feather or uncooked chicken leg.
My next test is going to be with regularly charged Mana Bolts. It’ll significantly reduce how often I can fire them and keep my pool at around 800, but it was going to be worth it for the practice. My skill has already jumped from 5% into the level to 20%.
The constant use of the spell really gives tons of experience. Keeping myself at the 800 mana mark has also boosted Regeneration too. I’m almost at level 17 in the skill. It’ll level by the time we stop for dinner.
While I was juggling the regular Mana Bolts, it became a bit easier to split my focus. I saw my mana regeneration increased as well. Funnily enough, so did my mana pool cap.
Health 280/280 (266*/hr)
Stamina 63/280 (28/hr)
Mana 800/920 (526.6*/hr)
So Increased Mental Capacity gained a level too. This is going to be one hell of a trip.