Alex’s third and fourth days with the Mana Spinners went much the same as the first two. They would wake up early, or at least what felt like early to Alex’s internal clock, and begin walking the tunnels. As Val’s level increased, so did Alex’s Mana. This allowed him to begin using his [Empowered Step] between the web traps. He was surprised to note that the Mana Spinner had no problem keeping up with him, as it could attach a web to him as he leaped forward and glide along the webs of mana with almost no friction.
While this increased the speed of the group throughout the day, the distance between traps with monsters in them continued to grow. After another two full days of farming hapless monsters, Alex managed to reach level 15, and Val had all but caught up and was level 14. It was beginning to get to the point where Alex felt uncomfortable with the rapid growth. It felt unearned to him, at least compared to how much he'd had to struggle for his first five levels.
It was on the fifth day in the Rift that Alex found himself a bit confused and bored. While Val had woken him up as soon as the spiders approached their small room, they hadn’t immediately left to begin hunting the webs. Instead, the spider had constructed a two-foot high semi-circle fence of webs around his room's doorway. It gave him something of a minimal, city-sized “front yard.” This allowed him a small amount of space to move in or out of the room, but it was clear that they wanted him to stay put.
At first, Alex had shrugged and busied himself by looking over Valtherion’s Status Window.
Status
Name: Valtherion - Level 14
Race: Mana Wyrm (Tier 1)
HP: 230/230
MP: 860/430
Traits: (1/6)
{Mana Glutton}
Physical Stats:
Strength: 5
Agility: 12
Constitution: 23
Vitality: 25
Magical Stats:
Intellect: 31
Willpower: 28 + 96
Mana: 43
Wisdom: 34
Bond Skills:
[Mana Infusion] (Novice - Level 9)
Primary Stat Shared - Willpower
Active Skills:
[Mana Siphon] (Novice - Level 9)
[Create Lesser Illusion] (Novice - Level 3)
Passive Skills:
[Magical Resistance] (Tier 1)
While the titles had done a lot to ease the sting that Alex felt about his low stats, it was clear from seeing Val’s growth that the little mana wyrm would greatly outstrip him in the long run.
Seeing that the Ritualist class did, in fact, allow him to gain Stat Points in other categories also helped greatly. When he saw that he got eight stat points per level, he thought back to his talk with Olivia. Even though it had only been days before, it felt like it had been weeks ago. She had mentioned that her class received eight points, which he now understood to mean that she picked a Rare class as he had.
On each level up, he’d begun to gain 3 Points in Wisdom, 2 Points in Constitution, and then 1 Point each into Agility, Intellect, and Willpower. Once he’d seen the distribution of points, Alex had spent some time during their tunnel walks to think about why the System set the class up this way.
In the end, the only magical stat that wasn’t awarded at least one point with the class was Mana. At first, he’d found this odd until he remembered reading in the forums on the AG app that many of the ritual schematics called for multiple people to participate because of mana costs. If people using rituals were used to working pairs and having multiple mana pools to draw from, then it would make sense that they might not be concerned about increasing their Mana stat too much. Not receiving any strength also made sense, but he had been somewhat surprised by the agility increase. Alex assumed that the increase was less likely to be used by most Ritualists for dodging and instead as a way to increase coordination.
After checking over Val’s and his own Status Window, Alex found himself out of immediate things to do. So, he began to rearrange his supplies. He entered his small alcove and pulled the door as closed as possible before cracking two more chem-lights. They lasted for a long time, and if he tossed one on the floor and held the other, it was easy to see. After the glass on his lantern had broken, Alex tried not to use it as much and mainly had gotten by with seeing Mana through his new ocular enhancement.
He laid out all of his belongings and was sad to see that the rations of food he’d packed were almost at their end. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay with the spiders much longer if he didn’t find a food source.
Next, he emptied the contents of the spatial bag. There were all kinds of items that he hadn’t taken the time to look at as he grabbed them and stuffed them into the bag. There were different articles of dark-colored clothing, several vials of liquid, and many, many weapons.
Repacking his bag, he left out the most used items and the most valuable items; this included the items that Eura had advised him to take. It also had some other things like his cell phone, a survival manual that he’d bought from the camping store, a water filter, a small first aid kit, a small mirror, and a Swiss army knife. In addition to the important survival items, he had prebagged materials that he thought he might use for rituals. They were neatly organized and labeled into waterproof bags.
Alex was able to fit all of these into the spatial bag without issue. He began packing up most of the heavier or pointier items after the essentials, knowing that they would be the most difficult to carry if he didn’t abandon his camping pack altogether.
When he was done organizing and sorting his look, Alex reached into the bag and pulled the three manuals he’d taken from the altar room out. Each was dark purple and clearly made by hand. The paper was thick, and the spine was bound with thick thread.
Alex was surprised to find that he could read the words on the manuals with no problem. Even skimming through the pages, the words and images all made sense.
Maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising. The manuals that people are selling at the Auction House are from Rifts, right? Come to think of it. I could understand Eura and the Celestial Sect members that chased after me…
He decided that there wasn’t much point in running his mind in circles around the issue. The System clearly had immense power, and if magical skills and spells weren’t causing him to overthink things, an innate ability to translate human languages also shouldn’t been too surprising.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“The Veil of the Viper: The Arts of Shadow Fencing,” Alex read aloud. He flipped through the pages and saw several different forms of fighting with a rapier similar to the one he had taken. Knowing that this would be very helpful, he set it to the side and looked at the other two.
“The Shadowed Path: Initiate’s Primer and Mirage: Mastery of Phantasmal Deception.” He flipped through the first and was pleased to see that it was a basic manual, similar to the one he had gotten on Rituals. These three skills, or as they were referred to in the manuals, techniques, were the foundation for the Shadow Serpent Sect’s fighting style.
It was harder to understand the opening in the Mirage manual, but it appeared to be a higher-level illusion technique, perhaps given to the altar by someone high-ranked in the sect.
For the moment, Alex decided to put away the high level manual and just focus on the 'Initiate’s Primer'.
If this has got more skills in it that could help me fight back or escape, I need all the help I can get. Sorry, Eura.
Before opening it, Alex decided to scan the manual using his Celestial Eye. He’d begun practicing scanning items and materials, interested to see what information the System would return him. Doing this also gave him a better understanding of how much he could push the ocular enhancement before he began to feel some backlash in the form of a painful migraine.
The text appeared above the manual was not that surprising, however the System message that appeared was very intriguing and caused Alex to sit back against the wall and give it some more thought.
E Rank Item - The Shadowed Acolyte: Initiate’s Primer
Rarity: Common
Type: (Consumable) Technique Manual
You have identified a Technique Manual.
Would you like to consume this item? Yes/No
Consumable item? Can I consume my ritual manual? What about these other ones?
Excitement built in his chest as he removed his Basic Rituals Manual and the other two manuals from the shadow sect. He scanned each of them in turn.
Alex cursed to himself as neither the ritual manual nor the sword technique manual contained the ‘Consumable’ keyword in the type category. The only upside was that the advanced technique book did have it. He wondered at what might be the difference between the manuals, but couldn’t figure out what it might be.
He returned all of the extras, once again, to the bag and looked at the 'Initiate’s Primer'. There were three techniques within and he could see their names, some diagrams of mana flow that the book kept referring to as Qi, and the specific way he should think about the technique activating.
Do I want to learn these skills? Lunge, Shadow Step, and Blur. Lunge and blur seem useful but are clearly geared toward melee fighting. Shadow Step seems cool as hell… it doesn’t fit well with what I’m going for, though. I already have [Empowered Step] for a movement skill, would it be smart to have another?
Alex thought back to his time with the wolves in the Common Rarity Rift. He had empowered his own steps with [Mana Infusion] several times before earning the skill and he noticed how the skill activation seemed to just be a more efficient version of the crude one he had made on his own.
Could I just learn and practice these skills without consuming the book, and try to work them into my own skills with their teaching as a concept?
The one of the three that interested him the most was Shadow Step. If he could incorporate part of that speed and point-to-point movement that the manual described into his [Empowered Step] skill, he might get something truly unique.
To Alex, Lunge seemed like something he could already do by empowering his rear leg and stepping forward with power, causing him to slide forward along the ground. He had been doing this almost nonstop with the rapier and trapped monsters.
Lastly, while Blur seemed interesting, it looked like a weaker version of the illusionary technique that the advanced manual had.
Alex sat back and began reading through the section of the manual that had information on Shadow Step. The concepts were a bit more esoteric than the information in the ritual manual.
Connect your mind and spirit with a destination’s shadow…
Cycle your Qi to the Rhythm of the Earth…
An hour passed, and Alex decided to call it a day and move on to something else. He wanted to try the new [Ritualist Insight] skill he’d gained with his class and to practice some of his rituals using the spatial bag. He scratched his head as he swapped the manuals out and wished for the hundredth time that had a more modern way to produce light, like a headlamp or a flashlight.
Alex removed one of his sketchbooks and looked over some of the last notes he’d been working on before stumbling into this Rift. The Weight-Reduction ritual was the one that he was most familiar with at this point, though it was likely not one that he’d need to use very often. The composition of shapes and the lower mana cost had made it an easy ritual to practice so far.
I have no idea how this even works.
Alex looked at a drawing that had very few notes on it, but almost the entire page was taken up by the ritual circle itself. While the drawing was too small actually to use as a ritual circle, he had tried to emulate the Ritual Basics Manual when making his drawings, keeping everything proportional and precise.
Can it work on this, or does it need to be an actual full-blown ritual?
With a mental push, he willed [Ritual Insight] to activate.
The effect was immediate; he felt a pulse from behind his eyes, similar to what he felt when activating his Heavenly Eye. Then, everything he already knew about the ritual was amplified as if knowledge were being put directly into his head. He suddenly had a better understanding of the base shapes of the ritual and how the mana flowed through it. Not only that, but he felt a few small hints when looking at the drawing that seemed to jump out at him.
Holy hell, that’s a crazy way to learn something.
Other than feeling slightly violated, like he was suddenly a human USB getting information uploaded to his brain through the System, he couldn’t believe how smoothly that worked. There was almost no resistance when activating the skill; it simply activated, and then knowledge streamed into his head.
Just by looking at the same drawing he’d made before the use of the skill, Alex could see a few minor ways to improve the Ritual schematic. He could adjust one of the node locations that housed a catalyst, which would make the ritual more mana-efficient. He also thought he had an idea of how to flip the ritual's purpose from a Weight Reducing ritual to a Weight Increasing ritual.
Wow, that’s trippy. Where was this kind of learning when Mark and I were in college?
Alex spent several more minutes flipping through the rest of his drawings and attempting to activate the skill again. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on a single one. Alex could only think of one reason why it wasn’t working.
Does the skill have some kind of cooldown? Even if I don’t know these rituals, as well as the Weight-Reducing one, the skill states that it would at least work to reveal the functionality of a new ritual. So, I would think that I’d get some kind of feedback or mana drain if it was activating.
Alex shrugged and resolved to try the skill several more times over the next few hours to get a feel for how long the cooldown was.
The alcove was beginning to feel a bit stuffy and Alex thought he might like to watch some of the spiders moving about as he prepared the ritual. He cautiously moved out of the alcove holding the chem-lights, unsure of how the Mana Spinners would respond.
I guess if they freak out, I’ll need to keep them in the room with the netting closed…
Alex flipped through the manual as he stepped out of the sliced web door. His small, allotted area had just enough space to make some of the less complex ritual circles. He watched the Mana Spinners’ reactions. A few stopped and seemed interested, but he was happy to see that they didn’t respond to the soft glow as poorly as they did to loud noises.
Now, I just need to figure out which ritual to practice that won’t disturb them too much…