I couldn’t even wait to try my “improved mana bolt pattern” on goblins.
I remembered that Luke said the herb patch was to the east, and pulling the mini map up confirmed it. What looked to be a few miles east was a little blue circular blob in an otherwise sea of black. It was also interesting how the map kept track of all the places I've been to. Mainly being the inn, adventure guild, and the road from where I started.
After I left the inn, I headed east towards the blue blob. I passed the gate and guards with no problem. I made a minor effort to remember some faces for future reference. I wasn’t sure if these guys would be here when I got back from my little hunt, but I'm hoping trying to remember random faces would help my mental capacity skill.
About 5 minutes outside of the gate, I checked that I was at full mana. Seeing that, I charged up my improved spell and let it loose at the ground on the side of the road. I was trying to see what the difference was from before and now, but I also wasn’t trying to destroy the road while doing so.
The first thing I noticed was that the bolt cast at half the speed of what it did before. That came as a surprise since I was already casting it in about a second at level 1. The next thing I saw was the hole in the ground was a good bit larger than what I was expecting. Before, it would have been about an inch or so deep, and maybe half as wide. Now it was almost double that.
“Improved” indeed. I gotta say that’s at least double power with half the casting time. I started cackling with glee. I could kill a small horde of goblins before they even reached me. Magic is freakin awesome!
The last thing I checked was my mana consumption. I saw my pool only went down by 8 instead of the usual 10. This is already a massive gain in power, and that’s only the second level.
If I gained nothing but improvement to this one spell, I’d still be pretty damn happy. At this rate, each shot will only cost a single mana by level 5. And I'll be able to fire 5 per second. I could destroy a whole army at this rate!
All that being said, I did still want other spells. Mana bolt is awesome, but it lacks a certain flare that I desire.
After my little experiment, I checked how far away the field of herbs was. I was still 4.5 miles away, so I fired another two mana bolts off onto the sky. That way I can get my experience with Arcane Magic, my Regeneration can start working again, and the road doesn’t have random holes littered throughout. I also pulled out the rest of the grass from my bag. I had no use for it anymore, so I tossed it to the ground.
Taking it all out gave me a boost in my bag experience too. Now I only had my shirts in storage. The stack of 5 shirts shifted from the second slot to the first. I guess that’s a pretty nifty way to keep organized.
I kept walking for about an hour when I saw I was almost there. My mana pool was almost full too, so I shot off another mana bolt and kept on my merry way. It only took another 15 or so minutes before I saw I was at the blue blobs location. When I got a good look at the place, the whole area showed up on my map. Hagrid, I love this thing.
I saw somebody start to stand when they noticed me. I assume that would be Grifith. I also saw a goblin pop into existence about 20 feet behind and to the left of him. I had to act quickly, since I didn't want him to get hurt from me distracting him.
I ran towards him and to the side so I could get a better line of sight. Grifith did not seem to like this, as he immediately got into a defensive stance. He swiveled real quick when I started shouting “GOBLIN! BEHIND YOU!” It was at this point I realized the goblin hadn’t noticed him yet. Grifith seemed to calm down when he saw how far away it was, and even started approaching it at a slow walk. Before he got to the goblin though, I had already shot two mana bolts at it. One grazed its shoulder, and the other went straight through its head.
“DUDE! You gotta calm down! It's just a single goblin. These things pop out all the time over here. That’s literally why I took this job. So either chill out and let me get the next one, or we’re going to have some issues. It will spawn back in about 10 minutes. So go do your quest and leave me in peace.”
He had a point. Goblins were starter monsters. They’re essentially angry children with knives at the end of their fingers. Scary to the unprepared, but not a problem for someone who came specifically to kill them. Although it was a little morbid thinking of it that way, it did help me calm down a significant amount.
“Sorry, it’s just that your back was tuned to it and it could’ve been bad if I-” I started with my apology, but apparently he wasn’t interested.
“Alright, lemme ask. Is this your first quest? If so, I can let it slide, but if not, you’re probably in the wrong business with that quick-to-panic attitude.” Grifith put away a dagger I hadn't originally seen as he got closer to me. “I can handle a single goblin. These guys are basically trash mobs.”
“Yeah, sorry. This is my first quest. I’m new to the whole monster killing thing. Luke mentioned that you - I'm assuming that you’re Grifith?” He nodded in the affirmative. That you might be here and to see if you wanted to party with me. I guess that’s not going to be happening though. I feel bad about how I reacted, sorry for that. I also have a quest for Cat Ear collection over here, so I'll try to stay out of your way.”
I felt a little bad about yelling like that. He’s obviously more experienced than me and knows what he’s doing. Hell, he even knows the respawn timer for the goblins around here.
Now that the goblin was dead, I took a better look at him. He was about my height, wearing leather armor that was dyed shades of black and dark green. He had a small bag tied closed with a string hanging from his waist. All in all, he looked every bit like a proper adventurer.
“Don't worry about it kid. We all start somewhere. But next time, don’t panic. All that’ll do is get you or someone else hurt.” Okay, I like this guy. “And yeah, I don't mind partying up with you for this. It’ll split the goblin counts in half for each of us, but I’m here more for practice than the money right now. I’ll send the invite.” His eyes glazed over for a second, then I got a notification.
Grifith has requested for you to join his party. Would you like to accept? Y/N?
I agreed and the party was formed. I couldn’t tell any difference until I saw a new party tab open on my status screen. It had a one next to it, so I assume that means Grifith is my only party member. After I joined, he gave a rather informative speech about party mechanics.
“I don't know how much you know about the party system, so I'll give you a few pointers. Credit for any monsters killed while you're in a party will be shared with everyone in the party. It’ll be spread out evenly, so if you go crazy and kill 20 goblins while we’re out here, you’ll only get credit for 10 on the quest. However, if you don’t contribute at all while we’re partied up, and I end up having to do all the work and killing the same 20 goblins by myself, I'll drop you like a sack of flour and you can find someone else to mooch off of. Sound fair?”
“Sounds reasonable to me. I suppose you already know I'm a caster, given how I just killed that goblin. Judging by the knife I saw you with a bit ago, I guess you’re more of a melee expert?”
“Sharp eye kid. I mostly do hand to hand, with a little knife play mixed in. But how about next time you start with an introduction before you start guessing other people’s specialties first, yeah? You already know my name, so what’s yours?”
“Haha, yeah, I've noticed I'm getting bad at that lately. My name's Claff. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise. Before we go any further though, I want to get some things out of the way. All loot from any kills will be split 50/50. However, you do your gathering quest, and I'll do mine. I’ll give you a heads up about a minute before the next goblin spawns so you can prepare yourself. If any wild goblins come over though, that’ll be based on first come first served.”
“Let me know when you get low on mana though, the halfway mark is ideal. I know you caster types live off that stuff and it can be hard to come by. I’d rather not have to drag you back to the guild while you bleed out. That being said, there’s a goblin trying to sneak up behind you. He’s all yours.”
I turned around, and sure enough there was a goblin about 50 feet away, hiding in a bush at the edge of the field. Thankfully Grifith spotted him and we were standing in about the middle of the field, so I had plenty of time to prepare. I started charging up my mana bolt as soon as I saw him. I aimed carefully, let it fly, and missed by about a foot.
“Dang, kid. You gotta work on your aim. Now the little booger knows you see him. He’ll start charging in just a second, so take your time. There's absolutely no rush here. I’ve got you covered.” Just as he finished saying that, the goblin charged at me. I say charged, but a raging 3 foot tall monster whose legs are as tall as my shin can only run so fast.
Grifith was right. I had plenty of time. Don’t rush it.
If you have to wait till it’s right in front of you, that’s fine. One shot should be all it takes.
I set my shot up again and took a deep breath. The goblin was yelling a loud war cry as he ran at me, but I tuned it out. I took another breath and waited until he was at the 30 foot mark. I loosed the bolt and the goblin went down a moment later.
Bullseye!
“Good job, kid. Much better than that waste of a first shot. Go grab the loot and get started on your gathering quest. I’ll grab the first goblin’s loot then focus on my own quest.”
I was honestly really proud of myself for that shot. I agreed with him and went to see what the goblin dropped. Unfortunately, it only dropped a loin cloth.
I honestly don't even want this in my storage. Hagrid, this is gross.
I saw Grifith pick up the other cloth and stick it in a little bag on his waist. If I was a betting man, I’d wager that there is some form of a bag of holding. I kind of want one, but they’re kind of redundant with my storage skill though.
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Well whatever. I can just wave my hand over it and it’ll go into the second slot for my bag.
So that’s exactly what I did. I pulled my bag UI up and focused on the idea of the loin cloth being in the second slot. A point of mana later and it was there. I checked on the rest of my status to see how my mana is doing.
User: Claff:
Health 120/120
Stamina 101/120
Mana 84/120
Quests [3]
Party [1]
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 1 [98%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [80%]
Regeneration Lv2 [43%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv2 [35%]
Barrier MagicLv1 [15%]
Game-like Storage Lv1 [65%]
I had two more skills that are almost level 2, and I was so excited. I knew that they would gain a level by the end of the day, probably even by the end of my time gathering herbs for the quest.
I walked around a bit looking for the Cat Ear herb, and found one after I crouched down to get closer. They were really similar to the description: round bulbs with cat ears on top. I ripped it up by the stem, roots and all, and put it in storage. I found another two by the time Grifith called me over for the goblin spawning.
“How can you tell when it’ll spawn? Is there like some energy surge or something?” I need to know this for my safety in the future. I would hate to be walking and have a goblin appear out of nowhere right in front of me.
“Not really. I only know because of how long I've been hunting here. I grew up in the city and my old mentor showed me this place. He had me practice fighting this same goblin over and over for days on end. When I needed sleep, he tied the goblin for exactly 5 hours and cut him loose at the end of his timer. He didn’t didn’t even care if I was awake.”
“Damn. That sounds pretty rough. But I guess it comes with its advantages. Knowing the respawn timer must be pretty awesome.”
“Eh. It’s nice when it comes to the quests for this one specific field. But realistically, you can learn in less than an hour. Other than that, it’s pretty useless. I don't know the timer for every spawn point, nor do I know their locations. I do know that this 10 minute spawner is one of the faster timers out here. I usually come here to meditate and focus on leveling one of my passive skills. I knew the goblin was behind me before you even said anything, and that was even before accounting for the timer. There’s still a 30 second variation of the window for the goblin to spawn. Speaking of which, do you want this next goblin, or do you want me to get him. I saw you shoot 5 of those bolts so far. I don't know how much they cost, but regeneration isn’t a common skill for people to take.”
Aw, he’s worried about me.
“I’ll take it, if you don't mind. I need the practice.”
“Okay, but give me a few seconds after it respawns before you kill it. I’m still practicing my detection skill.”
“Absolutely. I have a different skill that I can use to stall it. I actually have something to try, if you don't mind.” It’s time for me to try trapping a monster using barriers!
“Yeah, sure, whatever. Give me as much of a heads up as you can if it fails though. I can take this goblin on with my eyes closed, but it’s a whole lot easier if I know it’s coming.”
I nodded to let him know I would and we waited for the goblin to appear. While waiting, I noticed a Cat Ear at my feet and plucked it by its roots and added it to my bag. “Sweet, lucky find.” I said.
“That’s all sorts of wrong, but I'll get into why after you kill this guy.” The goblin appeared while I was gathering the herb.
“Alright, I got this,” I tried hyping myself up. I cast the first barrier between us and it, about half a foot in front of the goblin. It still looked dazed from having just spawned, so I still had plenty of time to get a couple more up.
I threw the second barrier to its left and was charging the right barrier when it seemed to wake up. It saw us just as I finished the third barrier. The mental strain of having 3 barriers erected at the same time was getting pretty intense, but I felt confident in making this work.
The goblin charged forward only to crash into the front wall. I started casting the final back wall while it looked around in angry confusion. It rubbed its nose, saw us again, and charged forward for a second time. It slammed it first into the barrier multiple times, but it didn't even crack. I might not even need to finish the back barrier. I still did though. I wasn’t willing to risk my safety on chance.
Grifith looked on in confusion and walked towards the goblin. As he approached, the goblin started hitting the front barrier harder and harder. I could feel the wall take some minor damage while it was being assaulted. I reached out with my mana to my first barrier and tried fixing it by adding mana to the already slowly draining pattern, and it seemed to grow stronger the more I added to it. I was so focused on my magic that I barely heard Grifith say something.
“What did you say?” I called out to him as I started slowly walking towards my prisoner.
“I said that’s pretty damn impressive! I don't think I've seen someone with a barrier skill like the one you have before. And never have I even heard of someone using it like this. This has some potential. How long can you hold it for?”
Listening while holding the barriers grew more taxing. I had to strain a bit to say “Not much longer, unless I get the skill level that I'm hoping for. Speak of the devil.”
As I finished my first sentence, the mental drain lessened by a good margin. I still had to focus to keep the barriers up and fueled with mana, but it was much easier now. I could tell without even looking that Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 just became Increased Mental Capacity Lv2.
“Now the only issue is how much mana it’s going to take to keep the little booger in there. It’s slowly chipping at my mana pool, but I should be able to keep this up for 2 minutes before needing to kill it.”
“Awesome, I’ll use those two minutes with gusto then. The second you even begin to waver, let me know. I'll be meditating until then, so keep an eye out for strays if you can.”
“Got it. Get started then.”
Grifith sat in a lotus position right in front of the barrier. This enraged the goblin to no end as he redoubled his meager efforts of escape. It started to kick and scream and punch at the nearly invisible wall in front of it, desperate to get its claws into my new friend.
After around 30 seconds of non-stop rampage, it decided to try one of the other walls. It turned to its left to give an experimental punch. It did a little damage, but the wall still had plenty to hold. I held off on supplying the front barrier with mana until it made a decision. As it stood, the barrier would hold for another eight or so hits before being in danger of breaking. The goblin kept pacing its impromptu cage, looking for a weak spot.
Seeing none to take advantage of, it went back to brutalizing the barrier closest to us. I pushed a couple more points of mana into its pattern and waited. I think Grifith should be almost done with his meditation soon, so I'm not panicking yet. I checked my mana pool to see I still had over 40 points of mana available to push, so I kept my cool. This whole test cost an entire 45 points so far, although 20 of that was just setting the barriers up.
“Alright, that should be good enough for today. Thanks Claff. I got almost an entire level because of you today. It’s rare that I see so much growth in this skill all at once. Usually, the monsters end up dead pretty quickly after I get close enough to sense them.” Grifith got up and dusted his pants off.
“No problem. But would you mind taking care of our friend here? I’m getting tired of keeping these up and need a breather. You should be able to just stab right through it, since it won't affect your body or anything you're carrying.”
He seemed surprised by that last little tidbit, but nodded his assent. He pulled out his dagger and with a quick motion, removed the goblins head. A few seconds later, the goblin glowed and disappeared in a minor burst of light. All that was left was his loin cloth and two claws. I bent down and put the cloth and one claw into storage and tossed the other to Grifith. The claw took up the last spot in my bag.
“Again, thanks for that. If you ever need a favor, feel free to call me up. That being said, I need to correct your herb picking skills. For starters, you’ll need a small knife in the future. Follow me over here so I can show you how it’s really done.”
I followed him a few feet to the right and bent down to watch what he was doing.
“See the bulb here? This is how most plants will need to be harvested, unless otherwise noted. Hold the bulb in your off hand and pinch the stem right under it. Pullthe stem gently until it's slightly taught. At this point, come in with your main hand and cut about an inch to an inch and a half below your fingers. This method allows the plant to be harvested multiple times, and it’ll probably even have a new bulb ready for picking tomorrow morning.”
Right, this isn’t my Earth. Monsters respawn and plants can basically grow in under a day.
“Damn. Did me ripping the roots out make that big of a difference?”
“Well, it usually takes 5 days for a new plant to grow enough to be able to be harvested. However, if too many people harvest too much the way you have in a short time, it can drastically decrease how many plants grow in this area. It’s better to just do it the renewable way. How many more of these did you need? I can lend you a spare knife I have for the day.v Just remember to give it back please. And don't go hiding it in that skill of yours. Don't give me that face. I saw you store the claw and cloth.”
My face went a little red at that comment. I was planning on giving it back anyway, but I forgot he was here when I used my bag skill earlier. “Yeah yeah, you’ll get it back. I appreciate the lesson though. I’ll remember that going forward. And also going forward, at least for the next 3 hours, you’ll need to take care of the goblins. I’m pretty low on mana after that little experiment.” I still had 35 points left, but I wasn't going to push my luck.
“Only two hours? No problem. I was planning on soloing the day anyways, so that’ll be completely fine. Just let me know if you see any strays in the meantime.” I nodded and took the knife he got out for me.
The next 3 hours and change consisted of me finding another 30 Cat Ears bulbs and putting them into storage. After the tenth bulb got added, I noticed that I had 6 slots now available instead of the usual 4. I was glad to be seeing progress. The downside of adding so many bulbs over time was that just putting the bulbs into storage cots a mana each. I still had enough regeneration time to bring me up to 98 points though, so I can't really complain.
“Grifith!” He got up and looked at me expectantly. “I’m going to take a break from harvesting. I’ll do some more later, but putting these bulbs into storage is draining my mana too. I'm gonna sit around the middle, and I'll take the next 3 goblin spawns.” He gave a thumbs and went back to his business. Two seconds later, he called out, “Behind you!” and kept working.
I turned around while still seated and shot two rapid fire Mana Bolts at the stray goblin and went back to relaxing, waiting for the next spawn. I checked my bag to see how the loot has been looking. So far I have my 4 shirts, 12 goblin loin cloths, 35 Cat Ear bulbs, 5 goblin claws, and two empty slots.
I called my status up to check my skill progress, since it’s been one hell of a busy morning.
User: Claff:
Health 140/140
Stamina 75/140
Mana 82/140
Quests [3]
Party [1]
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 2 [16%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv2 [36%]
Regeneration Lv2 [83%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv2 [55%]
Barrier MagicLv1 [65%]
Game-like Storage Lv2 [27%]
Not bad for just the morning. All my passives hit level two. Storage leveled up. It has been extremely productive indeed.