It took Vel longer than me to get the skill. The blessing really did make a difference in that regard. By that point, the turtle soup was ready to eat. The taste was good for something prepared on the fly, the meat had contributed to most of the flavor and thickened the broth.
We kept the lizard legs for later, monster meat usually stayed fresh for a few days due to the mana saturation. I took the first watch while Vel went to sleep. I used this time to select perk.
Danger Sense (requires [Improved Senses])
Gives advance warning of danger.
Magic Perception (requires [Improved Senses], [Mana Perception], 3rd tier magic class)
Grants the ability to perceive and analyze magical frameworks.
Perception Domain (requires [Improved Senses], [Mana Perception], 3rd tier class)
Extends all your sensory abilities in a sphere around you.
Mana Well
Increases the Mana granted by Attributes by a fixed 200%
Mana Efficiency
Reduces the Mana cost of spells and skills by 50%.
I was intrigued at the new possibilities. Danger sense still seemed like a good idea but I wasn't convinced it would be useful in the long term. I didn’t expect to get into surprise fights all that often. I left mana efficiency and mana well to the side for the moment, I hadn't had problems with mana yet.
Magic Perception was a straight upgrade, I would finally be able to analyze spells and possibly reproduce them. Perception Domain seemed too good to be true. The perk didn't specify the size of the sphere but that was to be expected. What stopped me from immediately picking this skill was that I was wary of it, mana perception had required me to dedicate an entire mental partition to handling it. I suspected this would have the same result, or possibly worse.
I had ten more levels until the next perk, I could use that time to level up mind partition and feel safe to choose perception domain then. I picked magic perception and earmarked my next point towards perception domain.
System Action
Lose [Mana Perception]
Gain [Magic Perception]
Cost: 1 Perk, Left: 0 Perks
Confirm [Y/N]
I confirmed and started up my second mental partition. The world didn't look all that different from what it had before through mana perception. However, if I focused on my dagger I could now see the enchantments in much more details. I could see the tiny channels which guided the mana through the metal and the runes which had been engraved underneath the handle.
I started to cast a spell and watched the magic circle appear in my vision matching the one in my memory. It was time for some experimentation. Before that, however, I had some classes to increase. I opted to progress Magus twice and Druid once, with the aim of keeping them at the same level in the long run.
System Action
Increase [Magus] to level 3 for 2 CP
Increase [Druid] to level 2 for 1 CP
Cost: 3 CP, Left: 0 CP
Confirm [Y/N]
I said goodbye to my class points and confirmed.
System Message
Class [Magus] has 2 free skill purchases
Class [Druid] has 1 free skill purchase
So many options, so little time. I set my second partition to peruse the lists of purchases while I kept an eye on things. For druid I had the option of mastery skills for all six elements, they have a lore bonus for that element, reduced mana cost, and increased mastery of the element. I had an inkling that the higher tiers for those were good. There were also druidic skills, like one that allowed to chose an animal familiar or to command animals of a lower level.
For Magus, the skill options were geared toward weapons and spells. No option to cast multiple spells at once but I suspected they were in the higher levels. There was also some overlap with the Ranger class, logical since they both had the same gimmick.
Light Mastery (Druid, Passive)
Improves your mastery over Light-element spells.
Reduces mana cost by 10%, grants and 5 levels bonus to lore skills when focusing on light spells.
Tier I: 5% additional cost reduction every 10 levels. 1 additional lore bonus every 10 levels.
Multishot (Magus, 20 MP)
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Allows firing multiple projectiles from a bow or other ranged weapon.
Can fire 1 additional projectile per skill rank
Metamagic (Magus, Passive)
Unlocks the ability to use metamagic spells.
You can create 1st level metamagic.
Every 10 levels, the level of metamagic increases by 1 up to a maximum of 10.
Every rank you can add one more metamagic to a spell (current 1).
System Action
Select [Druid] Class Skill [Light Mastery]
Select [Magus] Class Skill [Multishot]
Select [Magus] Class Skill [Metamagic]
Confirm [Y/N]
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I looked at my progress after several hours of watch and magical research. The pace had picked up when I had reached level ten of mind partition and added a third mental instance. I could focus on the watch with my primary partition and let the other two work on spell research in the background. I had also kept mind acceleration only in the background instance to avoid making the night longer than it needed to be.
System Log
[Mind Partition (I)] has reached level 14
[Mind Acceleration (I)] has reached level 8
[Logic Enhancement (I)] has reached level 10
[Memory Enhancement (I)] has reached level 12
[Meditation (I)] has reached rank II
[Meditation (II)] has reached level 5
[Arcane Lore (I)] has reached level 16
[Nature Lore (I)] has reached level 12
[Metamagic (I)] has reached level 4
Memorized Spells
[Arcane Dart (3rd)] [Arcane Barrier (2nd)]
Cost: 5 memory (17/32)
[Spell Slots (Magus, I)] has reached level 5
Memorized Spells
[Rock Tomb (3rd)] [Water Prison (3rd)]
[Light Barrier (2nd)] [Void Barrier (2nd)]
Cost: 10 memory (46/51)
[Void Scalpel (0th)] [Create Water (0th)]
[Spark Flame (0th)]
Cost: 3 utility slots (3/12)
[Spell Slots (Druid, I)] has reached level 7
Vel woke on her own when her watch was about to start. She strapped her leather chest plate back on and joined me near the fire. She leaned against me and gave me a sideways hug.
"Nothing interesting?"
"As calm as a still pond," I said.
"Hope you didn't get too bored."
"Worked on spells," I kissed her, "thank god for mind partitions."
"You mean cheater who cheats," she pouted.
"You'll get there," I reassured her, "and in the meantime, I'll do the research for the both of us."
"How magnanimous of you, to sacrifice yourself for my sake."
I gave her one last kiss and dropped down in the shelter.
"Good night love," I heard then I was out.
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I woke up the sounds of chirping birds. The crystals were just starting to shine and I found Vel near the entrance of the cavern. She was watching the smaller critters go about their day.
"Morning," I gave her a hug from behind. "Night was calm?"
"And boring," she said, "thank god for meditation."
I agreed, the skill made passing time a breeze. It kept you focused but long stretches of time still seemed to pass like nothing. I went back into the cave and started to pack our little camp up. The shelter was folded and stuff back into Vel's pack. I disposed of all the leftovers, including the turtle shell which was too cumbersome to bring with us.
There were still several hours of travel before we reached the fort. I wanted enough day-light to explore the structure without having to camp there for the night. Kobolds were in the area and there was a chance they had set-up at the fort.
"Let's go," Vel said as she put her pack on.
I disabled the trap spells at the entrance and we were on our way.
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The first real obstacle to reach the fort was the river. We had chosen a fairly narrow section to make our crossing, it was at the inlet of a small lake and so current should not be too much of an issue. There were several natural bridges marked on the map but they all involved a detour longer than we wanted.
In the background, I had my two mental partitions working on a spell to make the crossing easier. I had seen the name in Breknir's book and I wanted to try my hand at it. It was also my first foray into a buff-type spell besides healing. It took me a while to put all the pieces together but I managed in the end, and just in time as well.
System Log
[Mind Partition (I)] has reached level 16
[Mind Acceleration (I)] has reached level 9
[Logic Enhancement (I)] has reached level 13
[Memory Enhancement (I)] has reached level 13
[Nature Lore (I)] has reached level 16
Memorized Spells
[Water Stride (2nd)]
Cost: 2 memory (48/53)
Kobolds had beaten us to he punch. A group of three were collecting water from the small lake into wooden barrels on a cart. They were too far to identify them. Still, they didn't look like one of the evolved forms so we were likely dealing with weaker ones.
"You hit the scout with a shock arrow," Vel said. "I have a way to root the other two in place while you finish him."
I nodded. Humanoids were comparably easier to disable than quadrupeds, or hexapods for that matter. I took aimed and charged my shot, I waited for the kobold to turn around and berate one of the bucket carriers. My arrow struck true and pierced the kobold right between the shoulder blades, he fell to the ground convulsing from the lighting shock and sudden loss of spine.
An arrow hit the first bucket carrier and vines started to quickly creep from the point of impact. He cried in distress and tried to remove the vines but it only made the situation worse as vines grabbed his hands. The last kobold had frozen in surprise and was struck with a vine arrow as well.
"Nice," I said to Vel, "I have a way to cross the river without swimming."
"New spell?"
"Yup, Water Stride, lets us walk on water."
I ran towards the water and held my hand to Vel, she took it and I cast the spell. When I stepped on the water, my boot only sank a centimeter or so. It felt like walking on gelatin and was somewhat unsteady but much better than trying to swim in full gear. It took us nearly thirty seconds, an eternity in a real fight, to cross the fifteen meters of river.
One of the bucket kobolds had found his brain and had started to cut the vines holding him in place. The scout was attempting to drag his half-paralyzed body across the ground with one hand.
As soon as I set foot on the shore, I let go of the water stride spell and fired arcane darts at the scout. The spell fired one dart per class level, which was currently three. The projectiles flew true and finished him. Meanwhile, Vel had taken control of the vines and was choking the two other kobolds to death. It was kind of sexy.
System Log
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 27)]
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 18)]
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 16)]
Experience gain reduced by 20% for fighting with a group
Experience gain increased by 20% for fighting a group
Reached Level 37
Gained 5 SP, 1 AP