Being level 4 wasn’t as rewarding as Liam had anticipated. For a start, his class had continued to progress faster than he had. Tom McCardle and Winifred Fitzgerald were both level 6 and of course they had their star. Most of his class were level 3 or 4 and most of them too had more soul stones collected towards their first star and more quests completed towards a ranking increase. Despite Liam’s big jump in level, he was only in the middle of the class and felt that he was already sliding backwards relative to the others.

Still, he had the wand and examining his character sheet in the light of it was a real source of satisfaction.

Liam Nowak Level 4 Mage

Rank 0 Evolution 0

Junior Fresh student of Magecraft at Trinity College Dublin.

HP 25

Mana 40

Health 13

Strength 7

Agility 8

Intelligence 12

Physical Attack 3

Magical Attack 32

Natural armour 0

Magical Defence 32

Equipped Slots:

Left Hand: Hazel Wand of Syceus

Exp 21,572 / 32,000

Soul Stones 2/100

Rank quests 4/20

Skills

Magic Missile level 1

Freeze level 1

Titles:

Puzzle Solver

For his new skill at third level, Liam had followed the course textbook and picked Freeze. Combined with Magic Missile, this gave a mage a chance of soloing monsters by using Freeze to hold them in place, then Magic Missile to damage them. Of course the Magic Missile broke the root effect, but then you cast Freeze again. The limit to this strategy was that high level monsters could resist the Freeze and most low-level mages could only do the cycle of root and shoot four or five times before running out of mana. Because of the bonus to his mana pool as a result of the Intelligence increase from the wand, Liam probably had seven cycles.

The bus that Liam was on braked hard and caused him to jerk forward and dispel his character sheet for a moment.

‘Idiot!’ came an exclamation by the driver. Then the bus started again through the dark and wet November morning.

All the course books advised assigning to Health the first extra attribute points gained from levelling. This was because the extra hit points you gained lifted you above the average damage dealt from two hits of a monster of your level. You gained valuable seconds to flee or for your group to save you, rather than be instantly flattened. Liam had therefore done this with all six new attribute points, bringing his Health to 13 and his Hit Points to 25. Yet he was slightly dissatisfied. Of course, staying alive was a number one consideration. Some fringe texts – disapproved of by Professor DuFrey, who mentioned them only scornfully in class – argued that Mages should min-max by going all in on Intelligence. Not that increasing Intelligence meant you actually became smarter, it was a measure for mana pool and resisting mental attacks rather than brain enhancing, unfortunately. The min-maxer’s argument was that a mage should not try to be a solo class but work as a team member with tanks and healers. In which case, the extra hit points were not as valuable as being able to melt a mob fast with repeated casts of Magic Missile from a big mana pool.

Liam had some sympathy for this point of view but he didn’t have a regular group to go adventuring with. The solo route made sense. The reason why he felt he should be more critical of the textbooks, though, was that none of them, nor the lectures of Professor DuFrey, took into account the Wand of Syceus. This was something he had to think through for himself.

What did it mean for his build that he could cast Thornskin three times a day? And that he had increased magical attack and defence? At his low level, these effects were disproportionately powerful. None of his classmates – not even Tom and Winifred – were at magical attack 20 yet. And Liam was at 32. Next time he levelled he would not automatically put his two new attribute points into Health. And certainly when he reached level 7 and got a new skill, he would not just let the academic consensus make his decision for him.

Although it was only 7am, TCD was busy with students forming pickup groups to do some grinding before class. And at the cost of his usual eight hours sleep, Liam had decided to join them, partly to stop the crisp from nagging at him to earn more EXP. Having gone to his locker and changed his hoodie for his mage robe, Liam hurried to where some thirty or so students were gathered at the portal under the campanile. Among them was the girl from the casino.

‘Roisin!’

‘Hey you. You’re a celebrity. You never told me.’ She was smiling.

‘Ahh. I just got lucky.’

‘With the crisp? Everyone is buying crisps from the vending machine in the hope they get a magical one. Do you have it with you?’

‘Here.’ Liam rummaged into his pocket and showed her the Tupperware box with the thick crisp in it.

‘How do you talk to it?’

‘With telepathy. But he’s been a bit taciturn recently. I’m hoping a bit of EXP will cheer him up.’

‘He can level up?’ Now she was really laughing. ‘What? Into a handmade gourmet crisp? Barbeque lobster flavour?’

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

‘He’s a mage. And he’s got a useful skill, fortify. Hey, want to group?’

The other students were already leaving through the portal in groups of three or four. The more people in a group, the less your share of EXP. Massive groups only formed for boss raids, where the goal was to complete a quest or gain a magic item. Raid EXP was negligible. It had long been established that the optimum size of group for an EXP grind was 4, ideally: tank, healer, crowd control, and high damage per second (DPS).

‘Sure. I’m a level four rogue. We could use a tank and a healer.’

‘Mage, rogue, and crisp looking for a tank and healer!’ shouted Liam, and he got a few smiles. Smiles were all though; they were out of luck as the other groups had formed up already.

‘Never mind,’ said Roisin, ‘we can just take a safe spot somewhere.’

‘Have you been to the Tomb of the Arch Lich on the First Plane of Wickedness?’

She nodded, long hair swaying, serious now. ‘The graveyard is mostly level one skeletons. That’s not efficient for me though.’

Rogues used sharp weapons – Roisin had a rapier sheathed at her side – and they also did extra damage with attacks from the flank or behind. They wouldn’t be playing to her strengths in fighting skeletons.

‘I just had a lecture on the graveyard’s best camp spots. And how to get single pulls with Magic Missile.’

‘Right you are so.’

Standing beside the entrance to the campanile was one of the warrior lecturers and he was adjusting the jewels that set the portal destination for each group.

‘Good luck,’ the bored tone of his delivery did not match the sentiment of the words.

‘Here, before you go, we are having a promotion this week.’ A girl wearing a students’ union sweatshirt handed Liam a potion bottle with green liquid inside. ‘It’s a Potion of Light Healing, courtesy of Bank of Ireland. If you open a new account with them this week, they will give you a free Potion of Extra Healing.’

‘Neat, mind if I take that? I’m more likely to be in melee?’ Roisin held out her hand and Liam passed over the bottle. Then he walked through the shimmering turquoise light…

To come out in an ominous field of crooked gravestones. Ahead of Liam was a monument to a slain shadow knight. Under a grim, purple sky the heavy building looked far more daunting than it had in the slides of his lecture. Inside the dome of dark stone was the entrance to a dungeon that contained monsters which went all the way up to level 30 and which finished with a raid encounter with the arch-lich. Liam doubted he would ever be high enough level to see far inside the tomb.

A snort came from the crisp. A derisory one.

What?

Arch-lich. Arch-pudding more like. He doesn’t have any armour penetration.

You know him?

I’ve had dealings… that is, fought him… several times.

‘Lead on, McDuff.’ Roisin had drawn her sword and Liam’s heart skipped a beat. In her dark leather armour, the pale makeup and striking hair worked to remarkable effect. There was something very confident in the way she walked too. Not a bit like the girls at his old school. She had swagger.

Now is not the time for romantic feelings.

Shut up! I wish you’d learn to give me some privacy.

Gathering his thoughts, Liam focused on the information from the lecture notes he’d revised the previous night. ‘Right. This way.’ The landscape was exactly as described – fallen pillar, urn with gold leaf decoration, withered willow tree – and Liam followed the exact route to a safe place from where he could pull skeletons and have room to run around without attracting unwanted aggro.

‘What’s your plan?’ asked Roisin, seemingly unperturbed by the ominous tone of the environment. Liam was nervous but anxious not to show it.

‘Pull singles with Magic Missile. Use Freeze. Pull back. Magic Missile again.’

‘All right. I’ll step in should we get an add or if you can’t root them.’

‘I’ll give you a thornskin if that happens.’

With a thumbs up sign, Roisin indicated she was good to start.

It was all very well attending a lecture on how to pull mobs in the graveyard. To be here in the chill wind, listening to a ghostly moan as it blew over an open-mouthed gargoyle, was far more intimidating than Liam had anticipated. Taking great care, he walked toward the first target gravestone and just as Professor DuFrey had said, at ten metres away a horrible, high-pitched laugh broke out and bones shot up from the soil to form an animated skeleton.

Still cackling, the mob looked at him with deep, black, hollow eye sockets. It did not yet move. Every skeleton here was – at random – either a warrior or a mage. This one had to be a mage, since it carried no weapon. That made it more problematic than a warrior skeleton since it would fire a level 1 Magic Missile from a distance. The trick, said the theory, was either to freeze it and use the longer range that you had with a level 2 version of the spell to your advantage, or, every time it started casting you backed off so it had to stop its own spell and move within range. The challenge then was to get enough time to cast your own spell and apparently this wasn’t easy.

‘Here goes!’ Looking back over his shoulder, Liam got a wave of her sword from Roisin. Then he cast Magic Missile.

You have hit a skeleton mage with a Magic Missile for 14 damage!

Fourteen! That was amazing. His maximum before owning the wand would have been ten. There was no time to dwell on this exciting information: the skeleton laughed even more loudly, took three steps towards him, and started casting, a blue flame forming in its raised skeletal hand.

Freeze! But he had been too slow. Although the skeleton was rooted, Liam didn’t manage to get out of range in time and the mob’s Magic Missile darted into him. Damage on adventures was never painful. You just felt a tingle. Death, however, was a very serious matter. Only someone with a million or so Euro to spare could afford a high-level cleric and Raise Dead spell. That was assuming your body was retrievable and could be brought near a portal. Liam braced himself for a drop in hit points from the impact of the spell .

You have been hit by Magic Missile for 0 damage!

Zero damage? Liam stopped running. Zero damage! He was probably grinning like a fool because Roisin looked at him, puzzled. Another Magic Missile flashed through the dark air, leaving an afterimage in his vision but doing no harm.

You have been hit by Magic Missile for 0 damage!

‘What’s happening?’

‘It’s the magic defence buff from my wand. They can’t hurt me.’ Liam turned back to the mob and cast his own Magic Missile which caused the manic laughter of the skeleton to come to an abrupt stop.

You have hit a skeleton mage with a Magic Missile for 14 damage!

The skeleton mage is dead.

You have gained 5 EXP

‘Well done,’ Roisin walked up to him. ‘I suppose you just repeat that until it’s time for class. If you want, I’ll disband. You don’t need me and I can go get a coffee.’

‘Not at all! It’s only fair. I asked you to group. You could have gotten into a much better one. Five EXP though. I need over ten thousand for my next level.’

‘I know. But think of it this way, if you get two hundred a day, then in two months you’ll be level five.’

‘Two months,’ Liam repeated and he must have sounded disconsolate, because Roisin patted his shoulder with her free hand.

‘There will be faster days.’

‘I wonder though.’ An idea had occurred to Liam that made his heart beat faster. If the mage skeletons couldn’t harm someone with Magical Defence 32, what about the melee skeletons. He could try thornskin and gain a Physical Defence of 20. That might be enough. ‘Let’s see what happens if I have thornskin on.’ Liam triggered the buff and watched with interest as thick, sharp thorns sprouted all over his body.

Next, he walked towards a gravestone until a skeleton assembled. This one had a nasty-looking iron mace in its hand.

‘I’m going to let it hit me. Can you backstab it?’

Looking about her, Roisin crouched behind a thicket of gorse. ‘Pull it past me.’

‘Don’t kill it until it’s hit me once. I want to know how much gets through.’

‘Understood.’

Since his mana was nearly replenished, Liam aggroed the skeleton with Magic Missile. Cackling loudly, it ran towards him and he backed away past Roisin’s bush. The mace came up high into the purple sky and then crashed down on his right shoulder, with barely a tingle of feeling.

You have been hit by an iron mace for 0 damage!

A thorn as big as a spear sprang from Liam’s chest and broke several ribs of the skeleton before Roisin struck through its spine and it collapsed.

‘No damage!’

‘Really?’

‘I think we have an exploit.’

There was a whole class on exploits available as an option in third year and Liam was definitely going to take it. For his Leaving Cert he’d studied some examples for History, such as when Erik Haraldson and his group had realised that the pathing of a red dragon called Inry'aat was determined by the most recent person to have done damage to it, so they had set up in hexagon formation and shot arrows from long range, getting it to veer from one to the other without it ever coming close enough to anyone to breathe fire on them.

‘What’s your plan?’ Roisin did not sound as excited as Liam felt.

‘Run around the whole graveyard, pull a hundred or so skeletons, let them pound on me and kill themselves because of the riposte from the thorns.’

Good plan! The crisp, on the other hand, had never sounded more eager.