That night Will pulled up his status sheet for the first time in a while.

Status

Will Thompson.

Age: 22 yrs (Earth)

Height: 6’ 2”

Eyes: Blue

Skin tone: Fair

Hair: White

Blessing: Human (King).

Class: Script Lord

Level 25 Human (King)

Stats

Strength: 66

Dexterity: 29

Constitution: 31

Intelligence: 47

Wisdom: 38

Charisma: 34

Luck: 7

Skills:

Shadowmeld: Level 13

Mana Manipulation: Level 9

Concept Manipulation: Level 47

Manasight: Level 3

Inscription: Level 19

Swordsmanship: Level 15

Sword of Desolation: Level 10

Prospector: Level 2

Negotiation: Level 1

Regal Bearing: Level 4

Inspect: Level 1

Spirit Inscription: Level 24

Animal Companion: Level 20

Stamina Manipulation: Level 12

You have 25 free points.

Will’s stats had gone up decently well, gaining a boost in intelligence and wisdom when he took his Script Lord Class. His strength was still the highest, but that had been due to him putting so many points into it. He had been a more physical fighter from the very beginning, but with gaining Spirit Inscription, an obviously powerful skill, it had seemed stupid not to specialize in it. With that he had been able to boost his physical prowess to ungodly levels at times, turning his concept power into physical power. But it meant that his stats were odd. While he could create a strength boosting enchantment, his mental stats governed how strong those enchantments would be. Not that he couldn’t overpower those enchantments to gain massive temporary boosts. In fact, that was what he had been doing most of the time. Most fights before getting the bracelet were short enough he hadn’t realized it, but when he had the chance to train after taking the fortress, it had become readily apparent. Even his strength enchantment with a five percent boost was unstable with his mental stats.

Part of the issue was a lack of skill however. He was using rune combinations meant for weapons. He had some of the basics of enchanting from Old Morris, but their time together was short. It left him in a difficult position. In theory if he had enough skill, he could put every point into strength, dexterity, and constitution, and create enchantments so well made he wouldn’t need a single point in intelligence or wisdom. He could even change his class at that point. The problem was that this was far from actually viable. He needed a teacher that could teach him the basics of enchanting. Until then he would need extreme mental stats to keep his spiritual enchantments stable.

That put him in a bit of a difficult spot however. Most people chose either melee or ranged, with nearly all mages being ranged. That was because mages could form a magical effect within their aura and project it out. Will couldn’t do that. His class focused on making powerful localized areas of effect. All magical effects happened within his aura. It meant that he was a mid range fighter at best, close range at worst. It meant that not having good physical stats was a very bad idea. As his sword was still his main way of dealing damage, Will was loath to gimp it in any way.

It meant that he could not properly specialize like other fighters. He could continue to use his physical boosts, but Will got the feeling that there was a hard limit on the number of effects he could have active at any given time. For now, he decided to bring his intelligence and wisdom up on par with his strength as best he could. He put twenty points into intelligence to bring it up to 67, and the remaining five into wisdom, bringing that up to 43. But his struggles in this department brought a wonderful discovery, a feeling of resonance in his soul. His soul concept resonated somewhat with his struggles in some way, but Will did not yet understand how.

It was worth trying however, and Will spent the whole night in contemplation. He didn’t figure it out immediately, but he did feel that there was a hint of what he would call stat cross pollination. His mental stats would add to his physical stats, and vice versa. The thing was, while he got that feeling, it seemed to be only a secondary effect and rather weak. The concept was something more along the lines of having a wise body and a steel mind. That wasn’t it exactly, but it was close. It would probably take him weeks to discover the particulars.

The greatest part about the soul concept was the sense of peace? Harmony? Will couldn’t quite tell. It was a secondary aspect he was feeling, he was sure, and he really hoped it might help him to soothe his fighting heat and cold concepts. The concepts could use mana, but they mainly ran off of soul energy. If he fed them harmonious soul energy, maybe he could calm them down.

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That would have to wait however. He had made plans to go out and hunt slimes. However this turned out, getting the Ethergate fixed up would be great. So Will got ready by taking a long bath and getting himself dressed. He didn’t know how these slimes would be, but he had read plenty of stories. He was ready for anything, pulling out an oilcloth poncho to put over his armor. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would keep most of the slime off of his armor. He was not going to risk his white fur coat getting slimed. That would be a tragedy too great to consider.

Will went down to the kitchen where the other adventurers were already preparing a hearty breakfast of, you guessed it, bear meat. Will grimaced inwardly, but didn’t complain. Few people could get a hold of food reliably, and Will wasn’t an entitled prick. On a good note, one of the followers had managed to obtain a fairly large bag of salt, along with a few more rare ingredients. She didn’t say how, exactly, but nobody was willing to pry too far.

After breakfast was done, they headed out, Will, Emerys, and Amalise in the lead.

“So, we are going to a slime nest, which means we need to be on our guard.” Emerys said. “I assume you don’t actually know what a slime nest is right? Amalise, would you explain it?”

“A slime nest is a place where corrupt mana gathers in heavy concentrations. Monster cores, wisps of unbound spirituality, form there and create a membrane full of mana to protect themselves. These are slimes. They come in all kinds of colors depending on the type of corruption they are made of, and their abilities are equally diverse. You don’t have to worry about the small ones as they are newly formed and the monster core has yet to develop any abilities. As they grow they draw more mana into the membrane and slowly develop abilities based on their type. All in all, they are no real threat. The real threat are the other monsters. Slimes are incredibly appetizing to monsters. The only reason they don’t get wiped out is that the concentrated energies that spawn slimes are corrosive to most other monsters.

“Slimes are also the starting point of all monsters, either by developing their abilities so far they mutate, or being eaten by man or beast. If they are eaten, the unbound spirituality attaches to the spirit map like a parasite and consumes the soul. The unfortunate fool then loses all sense of empathy and morality and becomes a monster.

“If we can clear this nest, it will significantly weaken the local monster population. Additionally we will be able to place a mana purifier here. We can periodically come and draw out the mana and use it to make potions or the like.”

Will nodded at the explanation.

“Are slime nests common?” he asked.

“Yes,” Amalise said, “But they are hard to find. The best indicator is an increase in monster activity in an area, but many things can cause that. Do be careful though. We have seen a lot of monsters near here, but we will see far more close to the nest, and far more powerful ones. We may even find some of the cores we need before getting to the nest in the first place.”

And so they walked. The location was two and a half hours from the fortress, to the west and a bit north, going straight into unclaimed territory. They made the trip quickly, dispatching a number of monsters along the way. Toward the end, the fights were getting so numerous they slowed to a crawl. They could feel a palpable pressure in the air. The air felt like they were trying to breathe mud, and their movements were considerably slowed.

“Earth mana.” Amalise said. She seemed unhampered by the pressure that threatened to make Will collapse. He already had his strength boost on as high as it would go.

“Fill your body with one of your concepts.” Emerys said. “Push attuned stamina out through your gates and around your body through your meridians.” Will did so, calling upon the Feathered Winds and pushing it through his body. The relief was immediate as it pushed out all of the invasive earth mana that had seeped in without Will noticing. The air still tried to resist his movement, but his stats were more than enough to overcome the resistance.

They crept forward, doing their best to ambush and kill each monster quickly and quietly. It wasn’t always perfect, but they were able to avoid any hordes of monsters swarming them. The earth mana grew in intensity, and Will found that he had to circulate ever more stamina as they approached the nest. And then as they killed one final monster, they passed into the monster nest. It was a crack in the ground that led into a deep ravine that extended off in multiple directions. Emerys held up a glowing stone so they could see into the depths.

What looked like small brown rocks littered the path and walls. They were shiny and round in contrast to the sharp stones around them. But what truly gave them away was how they slowly crawled along the rock. Will pulled out his cheaper wand and targeted one of the slimes. He cast the spell and saw the whole slime condense into a small brown pellet, which almost immediately turned back into free mana. Will frowned in disappointment.

“I think I might have gotten scammed.” He said, but Amalise shook her head.

“It probably wasn’t big enough to condense a core. Try it on one that is larger.” Will nodded and they moved on. They went out of their way to squish every slime along the way. Slimes weren’t difficult monsters and gave energy far greater than their levels would suggest. It still wasn’t much, but who would turn down easy energy?

About ten yards down the slimes started to grow bigger and more crowded. The slimes before had been the size of a fist, these were now the size of a head. Will tried the wand again and was ecstatic when the slime shrunk to little over a marble in size. It was still a slime, but the crystalized core took up more than three quarters of the volume. That was, until another slime rolled over it and sucked it up. The slime immediately stopped and roiled for a moment before settling down and going about its business. A quick arrow punctured the slime, and the crystallized core fell out of the dissolving mass. Will quickly leapt forward and picked it up. His identify skill was still trash, but it managed to identify it as a monster core, and the system verified it was sufficient for the array.

It was not long before all the cores had been obtained, and Will was slightly sad that they were going to get rid of such a resource. While these blank cores were not useful for most people, he was sure he could use them quite extensively in inscription work. And so he made sure to collect quite a number, stocking up for the future.

The ravine was far more complex than they had imagined, twisting and forking this way and that, but they found themselves nearing the center soon enough. They entered a larger space with earth mana more dense than they had felt yet, and saw it there in the middle. It was a dark shiny brown, like all the slimes, but it sat there in a puddle, with dozens of pseudopods reaching up from the main mass. As soon as they saw it, it attacked, reaching out with its pseudopods over a hundred yards to smash into walls and shields. It nearly scattered them, but Emerys was made of stern stuff, and smashed the first pseudopod, and blocked the second while the other three hit the walls.

“Light it up!” Emerys shouted and he charged in. Amalise let loose a barrage of fire as Emerys, Will, and several of the followers charged in to contend with the pseudopods. Fortunately, the pseudopods were brittle despite looking like mud. They had a tendency to pop, causing the entire length to disappear. Will had been worried at first that his rapier wouldn’t work, but earth slimes were still slimes, and easily punctured. The same went for this giant thing, even if it wasn’t really a slime anymore.

The fight went well, and the melee group made it to the main body fairly quickly. They laid into it, to find that this part was far more resilient than the pseudopods. It was immune to blunt damage, and Will’s rapier had a hard time catching on the slippery surface. But Will had an idea. His rapier was unenchanted until Will extended his aura around the blade, placing a temporary fire enchantment. His heat concept stirred in interest, but Will shoved it back as he finally managed to stab the creature. It started to leak mana, but it was far from a fatal blow.

Will hacked at the beast, opening up greater holes. He saw Emerys with a shortsword slashing cuts in the creature's skin as he fended off pseudopods. Will cursed the blacksmith in his head. A katana would have been perfect right about now. Will slashed with his rapier. It wasn’t easy as the blade was not designed for the maneuver. But the length of the blade and the odd weight distribution allowed the tip to reach speeds where it screamed through the air, cutting large gashes in the creature’s surface.

After ten minutes of fighting, the creature started to deflate, and it wasn’t long after that it became unresponsive as it started to dissolve.before it died, Will hit it with a cast from his more expensive wand, and they were surprised to find three separate cores left on the ground next to a rusty sword. They went forward and collected the loot. Will wasn’t interested in the cores. He had plenty and didn’t need any more concepts for the time being. He was interested in the sword however. It was letting off powerful energy that seemed to attract the earth mana.

Will managed to get his hands on it and his eyes widened as he looked it over. It was badly damaged, and only a fraction of the original enchantment still worked. But what Will could see was so much more complex to completely baffle his understanding. Will could guess as to its basic function. It brought in earth attributed mana and stored it for use in its other functions, which Will assumed were attacks. However only the gathering enchantment still operated, leaving the weapon in a constant cloud of earth mana.

Will told the group about what he had discovered, and they took it. Mana gathering arrays of this power were expensive, and they were going to put this in a cave near the base where they could harvest the mana and the slimes safely.