Tom relaxed in the front entrance of the dungeon until his mana finished recovering before getting up and walking forward into the first chamber. A dozen zombies were mulling around aimlessly. He smiled as he started writing in the air while the zombies wandered aimlessly.
He finished two, then four, eight, sixteen, and then 32 separate glyphs linked together in one large spell. For the most part, Tom was working from pure memory, or maybe pure [Knowledge], though he did have to admit that [The Pen is mightier than the Sword], [Gift of Tongues], and [Words of Power] were giving him fresh inspiration on how to use glyphs in ways he wasn't familiar with.
<[Light Magic] has Reached Level 4>
<[The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] has Reached Level 3>
<[Words of Power] has Reached Level 3>
<[Wordsmith] has Reached Level 3>
<[Gift of Tongues] has Reached Level 3>
The simple, unfortunate truth was that he had never gone down the glyph user path that deeply, at least not as his focus. So, this was partially new territory. When he was finished, he looked at the thirty-two glyphs interconnected in a beautiful bomb.
He picked up a scrap of driftwood from the ground and chucked it at one of the undead. The piece of driftwood smacked it in the head with a thunk, drawing their attention.
"Hello boys!" Tom called out.
The zombies turned to him, shuffling towards him with an undead wraith in their eyes. Tom turned and ran back down the hallway to a safe distance. The moment the undead touched the collection of glyphs, it exploded with a Boom. Golden flames erupted outwards. The holy fire Tom had summoned consumed the undead instantly, as their two biggest weaknesses slammed into them simultaneously.
…
<[The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] has Reached Level 4>
<[Words of Power] has Reached Level 4>
<[Wordsmith] has Reached Level 4>
<[Gift of Tongues] has Reached Level 4>
<[My Mind is my Temple] has Reached Level 3>
<[Knowledge] has Reached Level 4>
<[Light Magic] has Reached Level 5>
<[Light Magic] has Reached Level 6>
<[Party Leader] has Reached Level 3>
<[Best of Both Worlds] has Reached Level 4>
"YES!!" Tom cheered. "Suck it assholes!!"
He was exuberant. Holy Fire Nova was a high-level spell, something he shouldn't have been able to cast at this level. This was the reason glyph magic was so powerful. Of course, its abysmal cast time and the required knowledge base to make it work tended to kill glyphs for anyone who hadn't already played Noralon before. Nonetheless, his power was now only limited by his knowledge and between his previous playthroughs and his bloodline. It would take less time to list what he couldn't do now.
But right now, he needed more levels.
DING!!!
You are now a level 1 [Lumenmancer] - Inferior
+2 CON +4 PER +8 INT +7 WILL +1 SPIRIT +5 CHA
Please select a [Lumenmancer] Skill.
DING!!!
You are now a level 1 [Seerer] - Inferior
+2 CON +4 PER +8 INT +7 WILL +1 SPIRIT +5 CHA
Please select a [Seerer] Skill.
DING!!!
Congratulations! You have gained the Skill [Lumenmancer] - Lesser
[Lumenmancy]: While other people dabble in light magic, you have chosen to take your first steps toward specializing in light magic, throwing away lesser elements as you embrace the light. +1% to your Light Magic Mastery per skill level.
Due to picking a magic skill before level 10 you can select three spells of level 0-9 or below.
< Select your Spells >
He would skip the free spells for now and save them for later.
DING!!!
Congratulations! You have gained the Skill [Pierce the Veil] - Rare
[Seerer] - [Pierce the Veil]: Pierce the veil of deception, unraveling lies, illusions, and obfuscation Skills to reach the truth. Your eyes can spy hidden treasures, traps, and compartments. Reduce the effectiveness of illusions and obfuscation skills by 1% per level. Increase your chance of finding hidden treasures, traps, and other compartments by 1% per level.
Tom reviewed what he needed to get the [Augur] class before he left the tutorial: [Light Mage], [Lumenmancer], [Seerer], [Diviner], [Pathfinder], [Biomancer], [Life Mage], and Level 1 [White Mage]. He just needed to pick up the two life magic classes, [White Mage] and [Pathfinder] classes.
He still had a long way to go, but it was necessary. And it would be fine; he still had plenty of dungeons to go through. His leveling would slow right down after he hit level ten and every ten levels after that. But that was a problem for Tom in the future. Present Tom was going to enjoy all of these free levels and skills.
He could feel the difference. While not as apparent as an increased strength stat, he could feel the difference as he drew a quick glyph just to test it.
"Alright, time for the loot." Tom chuckled as he moved into the shambling zombie room. Tom moved back to where the zombies had been. The entire corridor and a good portion of the room were blacked out from the intense flame. The once-rotting corpses of the shambling zombies were little more than piles of ash on the ground. That was the nice thing about holy fire; there was no barbecue smell.
Glancing around the room, his eyes were drawn to a chest off to one side. Instantly, he moved over to the chest, cracking open the lid and …
THUNK
"Gah, what the fuck?!" Tom swore as the crossbow trap on the inside of the lid shot him.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
<[Pierce the Veil] has Reached level 2>
<[Pierce the Veil] has Reached level 3>
<...>
<[Pierce the Veil] has Reached level 10>
<[My Mind is my Temple] has Reached Level 4>
The notifications sprung up in his head as the bolt sank into his shoulder, taking a third of his health.
"Really? [Pierce the Veil], Really?" Tom muttered. "You couldn't have warned me before I opened the chest. At least I got a pity level for being shot!"
The bolt hurt; it was not like the weird static pain, but it actually hurt. The last time he had been in this much pain, his father had hit him.
"Why is that pain setting so high?" he gasped as he yanked the bolt out of his shoulder.
A fresh wave of pain assaulted his body.
"Should have grabbed [Biomancer]," Tom muttered to himself as he pulled up his menu.
Tom scrolled through his options, looking for the pain setting, and it was gone.
"What the hell?!" Tom moaned. "This feels like they're trying to get us to pick up a pain reduction skill."
Tom was assigned his new level. It was not [Biomancer] or [White Mage]. He had considered it, but he wanted to know what was in the chest more than he wanted to fix his arm. And it wasn't that bad; he would probably pick up [Biomancer] for his next level.
DING!!!
You are now a level 1 [Diviner] - Lesser
+2 CON +4 PER +8 INT +7 WILL +1 SPIRIT +5 CHA
Please select a [Diviner] Skill.
DING!!!
Congratulations! You have gained the Skill [Identify] - Common
[Diviner] - [Identify]: You glean basic information from your target's status, whether they are a person or material. Reveal an additional 0.5% of your target's status.
Tom groaned as he felt his HP tick up with the increased Constitution. It wasn't healing, but it was good enough.
Tom threw open the chest. The first thing he did was rip out the crossbow and toss it and the bolt into his Inventory as his first loot. Take that crossbow. You belong to me now.
Then he moved into the rest of the chest. He found a pair of boots, a shirt, pants, underwear, a dagger, a red gemstone, probably a ruby, and a potion.
"[Identify]," Tom said.
DING!!!
Iron Dagger
It's a Dagger made of iron.
Damage: ???
Quality: ???
Durability: ???
Special Effects: ???
Lesser Mana Potion
Restore 120 Mp
Quality: ???
Durability: ???
Priestly Cotton Shirt
An oversized white shirt with gold trim that gives you a priestly look.
Quality: ???
Enchantment: Temperature Control, Self-repair
Durability: ???
Priestly Pants
Some well-made white pants with gold trim.
Quality: ???
Enchantment: Temperature Control, Self-repair
Durability: ???
Underwear
Tra la la modern underwear with an elastic waistband.
Quality: ???
Enchantment: Self-Cleaning, Self-Repair
Durability: ???
Ruby
AL2O3
Quality: ???
Durability: ???
Special Effects: ???
Fur Inlaid Troll Leather Boots
Boots created from the skin of a ??? Troll
Defense: ???
Quality: ???
Durability: ???
Enchantment: Perfect Fit, Self Cleaning, Hyper Comfort
Special Effect: Regenerating Boots, Enhance Durability
<[Identify] has Reached Level 2>
<[Identify] has Reached Level 3>
<...>
<[Identify] has Reached Level 8>
<[Storage] has Reached Level 3>
<[Storage] has Reached Level 4>
<...>
<[Storage] has Reached Level 10>
<[Knowledge] has Reached Level 5>
While the notifications could have been more helpful, the experience to his [Identify] skill would be more useful in the long term. It was incredibly annoying because he knew the [Eye for Treasure] Skill could tell him everything about these items. Unfortunately, that wasn't on his roadmap to the Augur class. And that Skill, in particular, only worked on items, not living beings or mobs.
He slipped on the clothes. While they didn't seem special, he preferred them to being practically naked. The boots, however, were made of soft but durable troll leather, the insides lined with soft fur, and fit perfectly. The entire thing fitted around his feet like a snug second skin t.
"I am definitely keeping these," Tom muttered as he tested his new boots.
The warm fur almost wrapped around his toes. He didn't even need socks.
Finally done with the loot, Tom moved to the door leading to the next room. This time, being a bit more careful, he opened the door while keeping his body out of the line of fire. He carefully pushed open the door.
POP! POP! CLICK! THWANG! SNAP! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
Three crossbow bolts shot through the small opening in the door, and at least a dozen bolts crashed into the door behind Tom as he activated the trap.
<[Pierce the Veil] has Reached level 11>
"What the fuck kind of tutorial is this?!" Tom sputtered.
Tom slowly moved his head towards the small gap in the door to try and examine the room beyond.
"Jesus Christ," Tom whispered.
Through the gap in the doorway, he could see crossbows mounted all over the walls, attached to a network of strings, wires, and pulleys strung throughout the hallway like cobwebs.
"This is … who's idea was this?!" Tom muttered as he stared at the death trap in front of him.
He was honestly wondering if this was a joke tutorial or maybe the devs were just being sadists.
He carefully considered his options. He wasn't going to spend all night trying to disable them all, and he would prefer not to just set the entire thing on fire. Those crossbows could be sold when he got to the nearest town and could give him a good amount of seed money. So, he needed something to set off all the traps. Something that wasn't him … A truly evil grin started to bloom on his face as a plan formed in his mind.
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Tom Bruner
Race: Half-Elf ()
Type: Humanoid
LVL: 4
SubRace: High Elf / Caucasian
Age 18
Health: 63/80
Stamina: 80
Mana: 640
Health Regen: 1.2 per hour
Stamina Regen: 1.2 per min
Mana Regen: 3.2 per min
Immune
None
Resistances
Mental 4%
Weakness
None
Bane
Manslayer
Classes: Light Mage 1, Lumanancer 1, Seerer 1, Diviner 1,
Total
STR: 0
AGIL: 0
DEX: 0
CON: 8
END: 0
PER: 16
INT: 32
WILL: 28
SPIRIT: 4
EGO: 0
CHA: 20
LCK: 0
Base
STR: 0
AGIL: 0
DEX: 0
CON: 8
END: 0
PER: 16
INT: 32
WILL: 28
SPIRIT: 4
EGO: 0
CHA: 20
LCK: 0
Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT
Bloodline: +5 INT
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of Inkheart] - Ancient: Your blood has turned into ink as the sum total of written wisdom has coalesced within your veins.
[The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] - Level 2 >> Level 4
[Words of Power] - Level 2 >> Level 4
[Knowledge] - Level 3 >> Level 5
[Gift of Tounges] - Level 2 >> Level 4
[Wordsmith] - Level 2 >> Level 4
[My Mind is My Temple] - Level 2 >> Level 4
+5 INT per Level
Skill Slots: 10/60: Skill Points: 0
Personal Skills
- [Party Leader] - Level 2 >> Level 3
- [Analyze Person] - Level 1
- [Best of Both Worlds] - Level 3 >> Level 4
- [Storage] - Level 2 >> Level 10
- [Mapping] - Level 2
- [System Wiki] - Level 4 >> Level 10
Light Mage 01/11
- [Light Magic] - Level 3 >> Level 6
Lumenmancer 01/6
- [Lumenmancy] - Level 1
Seerer 01/6
- [Pierce the Veil] - Level 1 >> Level 11
Diviner 01/6
- [Identify] - Level 1 >> Level 8