Rainer stood in an endless white expanse. This was the mysterious space where sleep learning took place. On Earth, it had been very useful. It gave him roughly 8 more productive hours each day, and allowed him to permanently commit to memory things he read. He could also reset his body to its original condition if he tired or was injured. If he died in sleep learning (in hindsight, that had been a reckless thing to test), he would be instantly restored to health. When he had finally learned the sleep learning spell three years prior, it had seemed incredible. Objectively, that was true. But he quickly discovered it had quite a few limits as well. He could practice his fencing - the necessary equipment would appear, as if in a lucid dream - but with no opponent, that was only so productive. However, the largest limitation was that he could not improve his magic while sleep learning. He believed that here, that restriction may not apply.
Holding his breath, Rainer formed an arcane bolt and fired it. It flew into the distance before landing with a satisfying explosion of energy. It had worked! He was using magic while sleep learning. The first bolt was quickly followed by five more, and then he re-set himself. A smile spread across his face. Just like that, his mana had been restored to maximum. Rather than waiting three hours, it had been instant. Then, he got to work.
Two hours later, Rainer woke to a HUD message that staggered him.
[Arcane Bolt has reached Lvl 10.]
[Reached the maximum proficiency of a Tier 1 spell for the first time: Rewarding 5 skill points.]
Even with all that had happened since he woke that morning, this was unbelievable. In only 2 hours, arcane bolt had gone from Lvl 2 to Lvl 10. Though, thinking through what sleep learning had allowed him to do, the math made sense. One bolt per second for a bit less than 2 hours - about 6,000 arcane bolts. How long would that have taken in the waking world? It takes me a little over 16 minutes to regain 1 point of mana, or rounding down, half an hour per bolt at 2 points per bolt. So 2 bolts an hour. That nap was equal to 3,000 hours of waking practice! Grandfather, thank you. If I survive in this world, your sleep learning will be the reason why.
With only slightly dampened euphoria, Rainer turned his attention to analysis of his current situation. He was in a cave on an unknown world, with no food, no shoes, no water, and very little understanding of the rule set that apparently controlled things here. He had encountered at a hostile goblin immediately on arriving, and instinct told him there had to be more in this mine. The only language he could speak was English, so even if he found other humans, he'd likely have to count on his class ability to learn the first level of their language and use skill points to increase his proficiency to a functional level. That thought brought a frown to his face. Skill points had to be incredibly valuable, especially in the long term. But right now, what he needed desperately, needed most of all, was information. If he could trade skill points for answers? It was no choice at all.
Speaking of answers, it was pitch black and he couldn't see a thing. Stumbling through a goblin infested mine in the dark did not seem like a good plan. He needed a light source. Rainer formed and fired an arcane bolt. As it exploded against the cave wall, he realised that it seemed superior to a Lvl 2 arcane bolt in every way. Rather than 2 mana, it had only cost 1. It flew faster, carried far more energy, was easier to aim, and had felt quicker and more natural to cast. It was also much brighter, glowing with a hot white-violet light. Experimentally, he formed a bolt in his hand but held it rather than releasing it. At lvl 2 in arcane bolt, he had lacked this degree of control. There was a small, ongoing mana cost to holding the bolt, but it was even less than his meager mana regeneration rate. For a few minutes he just stared at energy in his hand, trying to understand the possibilities it represented. Then, he had an idea.
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Rainer willed the bolt out of his hand and carefully moved it to his left, until it was floating next to him. While he somehow believed the arcane energy would not harm him, he was still careful to make sure it did not touch his body. With a mental command, he tried to fix it in place left of his shoulder, so that it would move with him, and was met with a HUD message.
[New Arcane spell gained: Arcane Bolt Armament]
With his new spell, Rainer got a sudden influx of information.
The spell formula! ...this..is...incredible!
His wall walking spell had taken months of intensive research and labor, and the end result worked nothing like he had planned. That was correct - magic was supposed to be hard. His grandfather in decades of research had only successfully developed arcane bolt and sleep learning. But this? This had been intuitive, easy. Rainer could not contain his excitement, and felt very little reason to try. He eagerly inspected his new spell.
[Arcane Bolt Armament Lvl 1/10: Forms an armed Arcane bolt at the desired place near the user. The Arcane Bolt may be set to release automatically at hostile presences and/or at the users will. Bolt damage and mana cost are improved by the level of the spell [Arcane Bolt]. Current Max: 4]
Quickly, he cast four armed arcane bolts, set to form a square as they each hovered a couple feet away diagonally from his body. It took about 3 times longer to cast an armed arcane bolt compared with a regular one, and each armed bolt decreased his maximum mana by .5 while active, but there was no other downside. The spell was incredible. He couldn't wait to practice it in sleep learning. Of course, he then realized, he didn't have much choice. Between his recent nap and these amazing discoveries, he was wide awake. But he needed to improve this spell, faster than he could while waking!
Looking around the cave, which was nicely illuminated by his 4 armed arcane bolts, Rainer had another thought. Perhaps he could kill a couple birds with one stone. He was at the cave wall furthest from the entrance to the mine tunnel. Turning, Rainer sprinted to the entrance. Then he sprinted back. The next time, he sprinted half the distance then lept as far as he could. Several minutes later, dripping with sweat after a hard workout, he was rewarded with 2 system messages:
[Skill Gained: Long Jumping Lvl 1/10]
[Skill Gained: Sprinting Lvl 1/10]
His Arcanist class ability had come through for him - just that quickly, Rainer gained two new skills. Breathing heavily, he decided to test later how much of a difference Lvl 1 sprinting or long jumping made compared with no skill at all. That was just a bonus though, as he'd already achieved his primary goal. As his heart gradually slowed, he checked the description of his newly amazing skill.
[Sleep Learning Lvl 9/10: The ability to practice and improve skills or spells while sleeping. Cannot acquire new knowledge.]
Skills or spells! Sleep learning is completely broken in this world!
Successfully worn out, protected by four glowing orbs of arcane energy floating above him, Rainer laid down and went back to sleep with a smile on his face.