Chapter 3: Spell Candler.

I lay like that all night, rolling and twitching in the dirt, lucky not to set myself on fire and only snapping out of the trance when I felt the sun beaming directly into my eyes. Afterward, I wondered if things could have been worse. Maybe if I’d taken shelter in a cave instead, I might have starved to death in the darkness as endless information continuously crashed over me. Instead, I was able to pull myself together for long enough to filter the information back to a list of suggested classes only. Once I’d done that it didn’t feel so much like I’d grabbed a powerline. Dimly I was aware that blood had trickled all the way down from my eyes to my lips as I’d floundered in the mental maelstrom.

That didn’t matter now, what mattered to me was the aptitudes I could choose from, I looked at the list. Spell-Chandler.

I blinked, the system had assigned me a recommended class, a single class and no other. Apparently it was recommended because of my highest skill being candle crafting by a significant amount but it also seemed like I wouldn’t be suggested any more. I tried to look at the list I’d seen before, but it felt like something twisted painfully inside my skull and suddenly my head was throbbing and the pain was ramping up so badly that I promptly gave up and selected more information on the Spell-Chandler.

In many ways it sounded underwhelming and weak compared to what I remembered from the schizophrenic fever dreams of the night before. Spell-Chandlers didn’t learn innate abilities like sorcerers or monks, didn’t replace their organs with those of magical creatures like an Adaptive, didn’t gain supernatural abilities with a weapon. They were more like a wizard, often physically frail, but requiring candles instead of spellbooks and arcane staves.

I could already foresee issues with being unable to sneak up on enemies, unable to find or make candles in the wilderness, unable to defend myself in melee but it did have one advantage, specific to me that was worth consideration. I already had a bunch of candle crafting levels. I read over the basic description of the class. “A Spell-Chandler stores their magic within the crafting of a candle, when the candle is lit the magic is released with the burning away of the wax. Because this is a hybrid discipline, an advanced candle crafter can reach greater levels of power than a Spell-Chandler who focuses on cultivating arcane might alone.”

The system was recommending me a niche and seemingly underpowered class because my preexisting skill levels gave me a rather large boost to its progression system, I understood the intent but I didn’t really think Spell-Chandler was for me. If I were going to be a spell caster, I would want to be something like a battlemage or a teleporter, not whatever this was. I attempted to back out to the list of classes and realised with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t. I looked at my stat sheet and saw something very depressing. Name: Jack Wells. Class: Spell Chandler. I clenched my fists and swore like a motherfucker.

I didn’t know how I’d fucked it up, but I had selected the class accidentally, probably in the middle of that fugue state I’d accidentally fallen into and the system hadn’t asked me for a confirmation message or any other safety net after I came out of it.

Whatever had happened I was more than surprised by it, I would have expected a lot more pomp and ceremony for such a big decision. So, I sat there and wondered if I was going to fuck up my life in this world even worse than my last one. No, I decided. I would have magic in this world, it might be a bit goofy looking but the magic would be stronger to begin with because of my starting skill in candle crafting.

Maybe with diligent study and a bit of grinding I could even become a force to be reckoned with… right? Yeah, right.

Bitching and moaning aside, the first step should be to figure out how it worked, I should have been so excited that I rushed to try it out. However, my head felt like it was going to split open and I was exhausted from a night of searching through hundreds of class choices so Instead of facing the problem head-on I curled up right there in the meadow and slept for 6 hours.

When I awoke I still felt like shit, and now small bug bites, dirt, grass stains and mud were beginning to cover my body. I also most assuredly had ticks now as well, but I’d stayed in the meadow because it had seemed safer than the forest by the sole virtue of being the place I had spawned in.

I opened my menu system again and did a little bit of exploring, it seemed that I was safe from getting lost if I stuck to the basic tabs, inventory, skills, personal etc. But as soon as I started removing filters or digging deeper into the system then the current came back and intensified more and more until I retreated.

With that unpleasant lesson learned I took a moment to rest before trying with just the basic menus. To my pleasant surprise I now had access to a new tab, Spells, of course I checked that one out and saw that two spells listed as level 0 cantrips were available to me. Light wick/Snuff wick and Summon Wick. I groaned but after a moment of reflecting on my life’s choices, I tried it out and discovered that I knew exactly what to do.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I brought my hands up, moving my fingers in arcane motions and awkwardly whispering an invocation until I felt a spark of power awaken within my very core and then that spark jumped from one finger to my waiting hand and materialised into a simple wick of brown twine coated In wax.

I stared stupidly at the little wick as a blue bar clearly representing mana appeared in my vision and drained by a quarter. Holy shit, it worked. A tutorial popped up before my eyes. “As a Spell Chandler you have access to all of your unlocked spells at once without the need for a spell book, however, you cannot cast the majority of your spells without having a candle as an arcane focus. Using spells in combat or crafting will gain spellcasting experience that increases the power of your spells and reduces the mana required to cast them, but you may only unlock new spells by learning different candle crafting techniques and combinations” I turned the wick over between my fingers in delight as the voice continued to explain the basics of my class. “Cantrips, also known as Level 0 spells can be cast without any kind of arcane focus unlike higher level spells. However, they must be earned via levelling up the spellcasting skill” I nodded my understanding to an unresponsive world and the voice continued.

“Some spells, such as Waxen Splash can be cast using any type of candle, while others require specific techniques and recipes, for example, the level 1 spell Dragonwick requires a candle of any type of wax that is formed with great care around a core-vial of highly flammable Naptha. All spells scale with the quality, value and burn-time of the candle being used”

A list of known candle recipes popped up in a new section of my spell menu: Arcane Crafting. I saw a lot of different recipes, using materials I had never heard of. I looked at my trolley and realised the only material I could make an improvised candle from was my dozens of tuna cans. “I am a wretched creature” I muttered, using the tip of my knife to poke a hole in one of the tuna cans and inserting my summoned wick through the puncture. I knew a lot of stupid tricks like this one, which made me grudgingly admit the system hadn’t been entirely wrong to assign me this class. The oil used to pack the tuna was flammable enough to make a usable candle and I confirmed the improvised device was adequate by casting my first Waxen Splash.

It was very simple, just like the cantrips I instinctively knew what I was doing. So I extended my hand, candle held aloft and chanted a three-word invocation to release some of the candle’s inherent energy as a magical attack. A spray of fishy-smelling, burning oil launched itself out of the candle and arced over to a tree 5 meters away where it left a smouldering patch of slowly cooling wax. I realised on some level that this would be a horrific thing to use against a living being… but it seemed to be my only choice for now so I wouldn’t knock it until I’d tried it.

Next, I looked at my spell list again and saw that the only other spell i had unlocked was the level 1 spell Dragonwick which required Naphtha to use and I didn't have any of that in my shopping trolley so it was not an option.

I examined the can and brought up the list of qualities I’d seen before, now it registered as an oil-based spell component but at the moment I didn’t know any spells that would specifically work with tuna oil so again, out of luck. All I had was my waxen splash cantrip whichm, despite the name was universal so I could use it with oil, wax, fat or alchemical candles. I didn’t know what the last option was but It didn’t matter much for now since I only had fucking tuna cans.

I needed 5 experience points to level up Spell-Chandler and I knew the process of getting that Xp probably wouldn’t be nice but I held onto the hope that I would have less torturously cruel attacks at some point in my future. Now however was the time to move on so I used my hatchet to make myself a simple spear and then used the fire to char the point until it was flame-hardened all the way around. With that done I checked my trolley full of provisions and began to push it into the woods, awkwardly clutching the spear in one hand while the improvised candle sat ready to be lit at a moments notice on the trolleys upper basket. On some level I was hoping for a fight, hoping that some kind of creature would jump from the woods and force me to unleash a spray of brutal Molten Wax to stop the erstwhile attacker in its tracks and allow me to follow through with a deadly vanquishing thrust from my char-tipped spear before looting, leveling and moving on to the next.

That didn’t happen though. Instead I just walked and pushed my trolley through fairly idyllic woodland for about 3 hours straight before I came across anything interesting in those peaceful woods. “What the hell?” I murmured, crouching low and examining a piece of lacy fabric that must have belonged to a wealthy woman, it had clearly been torn from a stocking or perhaps a very expensive dress but I was too uncultured to tell what it was by the stitching. Either way, the garment had been torn on a set of viciously grabbing thorns when its wearer had pushed through a patch of vines.

I looked in all directions, confused by the find. There was only old-growth forest blocking my view, the smell of wet earth, mossy bark and the sound of the wind rustling leaves. I gormlessly walked around the vicinity of the scrap hunting for more clues but I wasn’t any kind of tracker so I really didn’t know what I was looking for. It just wasn’t something I’d learnt on the kinds of camping trips I took with my family. I could start fires, make spears, catch fish, and do a bit of sewing. I had no idea how to hunt via tracks though and I wasn’t going to learn right now or anytime soon.

Instead I took hold of my trolley and took my best guess on a direction to head in. What the fuck was a lady’s garment doing in the middle of nowhere I wondered, obviously it couldn’t be anything good. Best case scenario was that perhaps a bandit had robbed a carriage and made off with luggage that had included the lacy thing, or maybe a bird had taken it for nest lining. I simply couldn’t think of any other reasons that didn’t involve kidnapping or fleeing certain death.

I continued walking in the direction I’d picked, with a lot of luck perhaps I would stumble across the mysterious woman but I didn’t feel particularly hopeful about it, not until I heard the scream anyway.