I had never really understood the true meaning of the expression ‘dead weight’—until now. The warg pinning me to the forest floor beneath it was very much dead, and weighed somewhere between ‘too much for me to move’ and ‘what have you been eating?’.
My futile struggle to wriggle my way free from beneath it was simply wasting time. I knew I’d have to expend some resources in the hopes of once more obtaining my freedom.
I decided to start with things I knew I’d be using either way—the two mystery boxes I had earned for killing the warg and, perhaps more importantly, not dying in the process. I couldn’t see where the two sticks had fallen, so I was forced to use my non-injured arm and grope around in the grass near my head for them. It took a few seconds, but I was able to retrieve them both easily enough. I brought them into my vision, rolling them in my fingers as I tried to decide which one I would open first. What were the drop chances for—?… fuck. I hadn't checked the drop rate for the uncommon mystery box while it was in my mission rewards. In defence of my actions, I had been fighting for my life. I could forgive myself for this mistake, right?
As it turns out, I could. It was a pretty simple mistake, and I was still mad at myself for the biggest mistake I had made that day—hesitating, and allowing that goblin a chance to strike me. Perhaps I would have changed nothing, and would have simply met my family’s fate, but there was also the chance I could have done something. The self-loathing came from never knowing what if. I suspected this would be a pain I’d carry for a long time.
I moved the two sticks in my hand until I could drop the green one on my chest, and only the white one remained in my fingers. I balanced the stick between my pinkie finger and index finger, then pressed my thumb against the middle of it. It didn’t take much pressure to snap.
[Opening Mystery Box (Common)]
[Generating percentile: 29 - Common]
[Result:]
[Dark-leather Boots]
[A well-made pair of boots made with monster-hide. The hide has been soaked in black dye after tanning to give it the dark colour. Comfortable, sleek and practical.]
“Now it gives me the shoes.” I groaned as the footwear in question appeared out of thin-air and fell uselessly to my side. I could have sworn the system was doing this intentionally. Don’t get me wrong, they were useful, but only if I was able to avoid my current fate—bleeding out whilst stuck under a mountain of warg. At least the shoes were pretty. Sleek, dark and intimidating. Long, too. I predicted they would come up to my upper calf, with laces along the entire length of them. Knowing the System, they were likely also the perfect size for me. I hated that I liked that.
Alright. One option down, two more to go. I grabbed the next mystery box stick from where I had dropped it. The green material it was made from was honestly quite nice to look at, but I didn't let that distract me… much. Before too long, I snapped that one as well.
[Opening Mystery Box (Uncommon)]
[Generating percentile: 88 - Rare]
Wait—rare? Wasn’t that… really lucky?
[Result:]
[Rune of Awakening (Light)]
[A pure Mana-stone that has been carefully engraved with a Rune of Awakening, attuned to the Light element. Holding this stone and speaking the command word “Y’llu” will activate the stone, awakening the ability to use Light element magic in the holder of the speaker. The stone will become inert after use.]
I blinked uncomprehendingly as the description of the item sunk in, letting my head fall back onto the grass. Even as the stone appeared and fell down next to me, I lay frozen in thought. I barked out a bitter, disbelieving laugh despite the situation I was in. Magic? Magic existed. Magic I could learn without a class? Because of… luck? It felt like a cosmic joke that things had to go so wrong before they went right.
I reached down slowly to collect the item that had fallen. The Mana-stone. It was a perfectly smooth blue stone with swirls of black within that seemed… almost alive. A rune was carved onto the surface of one side of the stone, somehow emitting a faint golden light. There was no doubt in my mind that the item in my hands was magical, a belief only reinforced by the fact that It hurt to look at the rune for too long. I held the stone aloft in two hands for a moment, just staring at it and wondering if it was truly okay for someone like me to have this.
While my arms were lifted, my eyes drifted towards the ugly state of my arm, the skin and muscle torn and shredded. Blood flowed freely down from the wound, dyeing the whole arm red until it looked more like something that belonged in a butcher shop than a mostly-functioning limb.
Perhaps it was the blood-loss, but I found the whole thing rather… amusing. Maybe I just wasn’t thinking clearly. My cloak was pinned under the warg, so I couldn’t reach in to get at any of my herbs currently—I was thankful I had found a decent amount of Yarrow. I would likely need it if I managed to get free.
My options for escape were dwindling. I was down to taking a chance on magic that could somehow provide a solution to get me out, or having to put my stat points into Strength and hope that was enough.
I took a deep breath, before speaking the command word.
“Y’llu.”
I had no way of knowing if my pronunciation was correct, and for a moment I was left feeling a little ridiculous while I waited for something to happen—but then the mana-stone began to glow. Brighter and brighter it grew within my hands, until I had to squint my eyes shut to avoid being blinded entirely. Even still, all I could see from behind my eyelids was uniform white.
Then, I felt it. A pulse went through my body, and I screamed—not because the pulse itself was painful, at least not directly, but because it made everything so sensitive. A bizarre experience. I could feel each strand of my hair as it swayed in the wind. I swore I could feel my blood as it flowed through my veins. It was a state of being hyper-aware of every part of myself—which meant I could feel each torn muscle and every damaged nerve more intimately and accurately than I ever had before. It was torturous, and every second that ticked by seemed to stretch on for eternity while I writhed in agony.
When the sensation finally subsided, it felt as if days had passed, though I reasoned it must have only been minutes. Not that I was certain—I mostly judged by the fact I hadn't bled out yet, and the sun was right where I had left it.
I was breathing heavily, and sweating profusely. The only positive I had to hold on to in that moment was the numbness. That after experiencing that heightened level of pain, my injuries almost felt like a memory now by comparison. I slowly opened my eyes, hoping there would be notifications waiting for me that could justify the experience I had just gone through.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Congratulations, user Belladonna! You have awakened Light Magic.]
[Your Status Screen has been upgraded to display information regarding your Magic.]
Somewhat weakly, I willed my Status Screen open.
[Status Screen]
[Spire User: Belladonna]
[Name: Fable en Ryvaesen]
[Race: Human]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: 17]
[Level: 3]
[Experience: 11/15]
[Class: None (Requirement: Level 10)]
[General Skills: (Available Slots: 0)]
[Noble Elegance - Lv. 2]
[Herbalism - Lv. 1]
[Stats: (Available Points: 3)]
[Strength: 8]
[Grace: 13]
[Endurance: 12]
[Resolve: 11]
[Acuity: 10]
[Intellect: 12]
[Presence: 10]
[Magical Ability]
[Mana: 45/45]
[Element: Light - Level 1]
[Level 0 Magic: (Available Slots: 1)]
[Level 1 Magic: (Available Slots: 1)]
“Haaah…”
There it was. Magic. Like most things to do with the System, however, I had absolutely no idea how to use it, or what any of this meant. At least I had a method to see what information was available to me. For each new section related to magic in my Status Screen, I tried to open an explanation.
Approximately half a dozen windows flashed open in an instant, white text contrasting strongly against the opaque black of the floating panes. There was… a lot of information. All that remained was to try and learn.
[Mana]
[A numerical measure of your current Mana levels, as well as your body’s maximum capacity for Mana. Mana is consumed to fuel the magic of spells. Mana regenerates slowly, created from energy within your body. It is an aspect of your life-force, and as such, you will be rendered unconscious should your Mana ever reach zero.]
Mana. I… had Mana within my body, and it was an aspect of my life-force? Did that mean everyone had Mana? It was used to fuel magic—that was something to be mindful of. I opened a separate window that only showed my Mana levels, moving it to the periphery, above my current bounty objective.
[Mana]
[45/45]
With that sorted, I continued to read.
[Light]
[An element of magic that represents the manipulation of light. It also includes a small selection of purification and healing magic.]
I was suddenly a lot more alert at the mention of healing magic. I had never heard of such a thing existing. Most of the healers in stories achieved results through herbalism or alchemy. Being able to heal my injuries wouldn’t solve my being stuck, but it would greatly extend the amount of time I had left to figure something out from minutes to days.
[Magic Level]
[Your level of Light Magic is currently Level 1. It is increased through improved understanding of the light element, and the use of Light Magic.]
[Your maximum level for Light Magic is currently Level 2. It is the sum of your Resolve and Intellect stats, divided by 10 and rounded down.]
I groaned internally at the mention of math. My tutor had thought me quite talented, but I found the subject tedious. Why were we adding all those things together? To what end?
Now, though, I had to begrudgingly thank them for my education. It made understanding a little easier. My current level of Light Magic was one. I could level it up to two with use, but if I wanted to get it to level three, I needed to increase my Resolve or Intellect stats by another seven points between them.
[Level 0 Magic: Light]
[The lowest level of magic. Spells of this level do not require Mana to cast.]
[An additional Level 0 Magic Slot is unlocked every ten levels of Light Magic.]
So these spells took no Mana to cast. I took that to mean I could potentially use them a considerable number of times each day. I was a little concerned about not receiving a new slot until I had achieved level ten in Light Magic, though. That required a hundred total points split between my Resolve and Intellect. I wouldn’t be able to achieve that for another twenty-six levels, and that was assuming I dedicated every single point to those two stats. Magic was starting to seem really quite limited in its growth.
[Level 0 Magic available:]
[Mote of Light]
[Minor Cleanse]
[Handheld Illusion]
[Colour Shift]
[Purify Liquid]
[Minor Light Beam]
A smaller selection of spells than I had imagined. Was there criteria to unlock more? There was no healing on offer here—some of them sounded quite interesting, though none of them seemed like they could help me with my immediate problem. I reasoned that I could hold off on selecting until I needed a particular effect.
[Level 1 Magic: Light]
[Simple spells that consume Mana to cast.]
[An additional Level 1 Magic Slot is unlocked every five levels of Light Magic.]
Simple and used Mana. Additionally, it seemed that I would receive a new slot at twice the frequency of the Level 0 spells. Was this to limit the amount of resourceless magic someone had access to?
[Level 1 Magic available:]
[Camouflage]
[Lesser Heal]
[Static Illusion]
[Flash-spark]
[Cleanse]
[Light Beam]
I knew the smart thing to do would've been to read the description of each spell and select the strongest one—but I'm ashamed to admit, that is not what I did. Not even a little bit. Instead, I immediately selected the [Lesser Heal] spell.
[Lesser Heal - Lv. 1]
[Cost - 10 Mana]
[Heals wounds with a touch. Does not cure infection. Does not restore missing limbs. Does not restore lost life. Does not cure sickness or disease. Does not remove curses.]
That was… quite the description of what the spell didn’t do, but I guess it disclosed the limitations of the spell clearly enough. It was a spell, and its purpose was to heal wounds at a touch. The Lv. 1 listed next to it threw me a little, however. Was that simply showing that the spell was Level 1 magic? Or would it level it up independently? I sighed. There was only one way to find out.
[Magical Ability]
[Mana: 45/45]
[Element: Light - Level 1]
[Level 0 Magic: (Available Slots: 1)]
[Level 1 Magic: (Available Slots: 0)]
[Lesser Heal - Lv. 1]
I felt a tickling sensation in my mind, like the solution to a grand puzzle was at the tip of my tongue. I realised that I now knew how to perform this magic. It was a little unsettling the way the knowledge just suddenly… was, but I was getting used to the eccentricities of the System.
I turned my attention to my ruined forearm, gently laying the palm of my uninjured arm across the sundered skin. An involuntary hiss of pain slipped between grit teeth, but I didn’t pull away. Instead, I attempted to focus on the desired effect of the spell–skin and muscles beneath my hand knitting back together as they should be—while pushing a little Mana into the spell. I felt the connection between Mana and magic at once.
“Olms Seffer.” I spoke, heaving a subtle reverberation of power in my voice.
I almost expected a flash of golden light, something like what I had seen in depictions of the gods when they used their divine power. Instead, my Mana depleted by ten points, and a soft purple glow emanated from my hand. Immediately, I felt warmth. Warmth and a distinct lack of pain. I kept my eyes on my injured arm, amazed to see it heal in real time. First, the muscle slipped back beneath the skin where it belonged, and knitted together seamlessly. Then, the lacerations in the skin fused shut, leaving my arm soft and unblemished by any sign of injury. I had been watching closely, but it still felt like it happened in an instant.
“Well… that's convenient.”