Q reappeared in a flash of light and found herself back inside the Nine-Lives Inn. Seeing that no one else was around, she decided to look at the penalties of dying. Let’s see… reduced stats for a few hours, loss of experience, and I lost some money as well. Nothing too serious then.
Feeling reassured, she exited the Inn (not before searching for Clair for one last petting session) and made her way back to the Town Hall. Checking her friend’s list, only Kukis was online so she decided to send a message.
Sup.
Totally. Instant death? Happens to me all the time.
Sure!
Q closed the chat box and reached the entrance to Town Hall. Once she went inside, she was met by Pamerun and her apprentices, who looked incredibly surprised. “Even though I knew you would come back after dying, it’s still surprising to see you walking about.” Pamerun said with an apologetic look on her face. “I must apologize as well though, I hadn’t taught you how to sense the magic traps and still let you go into such a dangerous place.”
“Eh, no big deal.” Q shrugged. “But if you really feel apologetic, maybe you should teach me how to sense magic traps before letting me down there again?”
“Of course.” Pamerun began leading Q through the Town Hall, down to the staircase to the Underground Library. “Now, as I had said before, magic - or mana - is all around us. It exists in every living being, and even some non-living things as well. By utilizing your own mana, you can sense the other things which emit mana around you. Here, let us try it.” Pamerun stopped in the middle of the hallway and held up her hand.
“I want you to close your eyes, and try to sense the mana in my hand.” She instructed.
Q nodded and closed her eyes, trying to focus on feeling mana. For a while she felt nothing, but then she started to sense something moving in a circle. This feeling was similar to what she felt while she was looking at the magical items in the Merchant’s District. So does that mean this is what mana feels like? She wondered. After focusing on that ‘something’ for a while, she was able to make a faint outline, which eventually turned into the shape of a hand. As soon as she was able to recognize the shape, a *ding* sound was made and she opened her eyes to find a window in front of her.
[New Skill!] - Mana Perception (Active, Consumes 5 mana per second) By concentrating, you are able to find areas where mana is dense. Current radius of perception: 1 meter.
“Huh, is it supposed to be that easy to sense mana?” Q asked after reading the window.
“Honestly no. It normally takes people weeks, or even months being exposed to mana in order to begin sensing it. You adventurers are different though, as you haven’t even gone through any training and can use mana straight away.” Pamerun explained.
“Interesting…” Q began to use her new ability to try sensing what was around her. As soon as she began though, she was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mana that Pamerun was letting out. Opening her eyes in shock, Q stared at Pamerun who began laughing. “That was another little lesson. Experienced mages can freely manipulate their mana, so they can easily hide it and keep you from sensing them. On the other hand they can also flaunt their mana as a sort of ‘intimidation’ tactic.”
“Wow. How much practice does it take to freely manipulate your mana?”
“For talented mages, perhaps 5 years at most. For you adventurers, I’m not entirely sure but I estimate around one year's worth of training will allow you to manipulate your mana. Heh, it really makes me think about how capable you adventurers are… Ah, here we are.” Pamerun stopped talking as they reached a set of double doors which opened up to reveal a large staircase going down.
“Alright. Thanks for showing me how to sense mana Pamerun! I’ll be back once I save Cookie from training hell.” Q began to descend the stairs while being sent off by Pamerun and her apprentices.
These stairs are… really long. Q thought as she walked downwards. I didn’t notice it because Haeldrix was dragging us around but this is a really deep library! I dread having to walk back up…
After at least ten minutes of descending Q finally reached the bottom of the stairs and found herself in front of the giant door. While wondering what she should do to open it, the door opened by itself and Q cautiously approached the entrance of the library. Just as she was about to take a step forward, she stopped and activated her new [Mana Perception] skill just to make sure she wouldn’t step on another trap. Not sensing anything around her, she cautiously took a few steps into the library and was able to see it properly.
The ceiling was at least six stories high with wooden rafters that let down dim lanterns. While there were countless amounts of books on the bookshelves, Q was unable to read a lot of them. As she decided to start walking on the stone floor, a wandering spirit or fairy (at least she assumed they were fairies) would float by and take a look at her, and then leave afterwards.
After wandering around the library for a while, Q found an open area and finally decided to do something she wanted to a long time ago. When she first got the skill, she didn’t have enough mana to activate it. As she levelled up she placed every point she had into wisdom to be able to use it, but thankfully she was able to get Alrune’s Key and now had enough mana to use it. Even then though, she hadn’t found a suitable opportunity as she kept getting distracted or was in the village and couldn’t use the skill. Finally, after so long she was able to use it. Now, was the time to… “[Summon Wolfy]!”
A flash of light suddenly appeared in front of Q and an imposing figure of a large black wolf appeared. As the light faded away, it tilted its head up and howled. “AWOOOOO- *thud*”
The wolf’s howl was stopped short as it was glomped by Q who jumped forward the moment it appeared. “Ahahaha Wolfy! Your fur is so sooooft~.” Q buried her face in its fur and began rolling around.
“Awo?” Wolfy seemed confused for a moment as its dramatic entrance was ruined, but it quickly calmed down seeing that Q was the one who was hugging it. “Gururu…” A contented rumble came out of its throat as it enjoyed the feeling of being pet by Q. In the middle of playing with Wolfy’s ears, Q suddenly realized something.
“Hey Wolfy, are you a guy or a girl?” Faced with Q’s question, Wolfy made a strange face, but then turned away its head. “Okay, I’ll find out myself then.” Q lifted up its leg without any reservations and confirmed Wolfy’s gender. “So you’re a male huh? Not that I think you could be anything else since you were technically an alpha.”
Suddenly Q noticed two other presences behind her and turned around to find two other wolves which were maybe two thirds the size of Wolfy. They were both sitting patiently on their hind legs, but they didn’t keep that pose for too long as Q also jumped on them. Eventually Q was rolling around in a pile with the wolves and had a slovenly face. “Guhehehehe. This is what I’m playing this game for!” Q’s fluffy bliss was interrupted when a voice brought her back to attention.
“What are you doing Q?” Q looked up to find Kukis standing above her with a disheveled look.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m obviously enjoying my long-deserved fluffy-fluff time.”
“I asked you to come down here and help me! Why are you just- Crap! [Earth Armor]!” Kukis suddenly cast a spell as something from behind hit her and broke her armor.
“Too weak! Your armor is too weak!” Haeldrix revealed herself as she clicked her tongue at Kukis. “And… oh hey, you’re back! How did it feel to die from that trap?” Haeldrix’s eyebrow was raised as she saw Q in the middle of all the wolves.
“...Unpleasant. You could’ve warned me about it beforehand you know?”
“Eh, not my fault you can’t sense magic traps. By the way, did you summon those wolves?”
“Haa... “ Q sighed as she sank even further into Wolfy’s fur. “Yes, I summoned these wolves. Well actually I just summoned Wolfy here, the other two were just extras… Still very welcome extras though!” Q quickly corrected herself as she felt that the two additional wolves became a little depressed. “Anyway, can I start learning earth magic now?” She asked.
“Sure! I’ll just gloss over the basics since Kukis here already knows. Basically, earth magic deals with manipulating the earth. At first you can only really manipulate what I call ‘soft earth’. That’s stuff like mud or sand. Then you can move onto soil, rocks, etc. As you get better at it you can even create rocks out of magic power! But… you adventurers are sort of cheating since you can somehow instantly understand the way a spell works without any practice. Of course even if you can use a spell it doesn’t mean you truly understand the element, so as a result the spells you learn from spellbooks are weaker than ones that an earth mage who’s done their research is.”
“Ahah, yeah.” Q scratched her head in embarrassment. This game is pretty much easy mode for us adventurers I suppose. But judging by her words, if we ever want to git gud we’ll have to put in some actual effort into learning and using these spells. She then asked, “What’s the first spell that I’m going to be learning?”
“You’ll start with [Pebble Shot], then [Sand], and then [Earth Armor]. That’s not even scratching the surface of earth spells though, so you have a long way to go. Now follow me, we’re going to a place with monsters to train! Also Kukis, keep maintaining that armor! If it breaks again I’ll throw you towards a Nibbler!”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
While Kukis had a grimace on her face, Q got up on top of Wolfy and patted his head. “Okay Wolfy, onwards!” Wolfy let out a grunt of understanding and began walking forward while the other wolves followed. Kukis looked at Q in envy but continued to use her [Earth Armor] as she followed Haeldrix. After a few minutes of walking they found themselves in a wide open area without many books around. There were a few portions of the ground that was elevated, as well as some stray rocks and what appeared to be sand.
“This is where I got trained. Prepare yourself Q.” Kukis said as she found a corner to train in.
From here Haeldrix began teaching Q the words for invoking the [Pebble Shot] spell, and told her to manipulate her mana to cast it. While memorizing the words for the spell was easy, learning how to manipulate mana on the spot was far more complicated. Luckily since Q had her mana perception ability it was a bit easier since she already knew what mana felt like.
When she cast the spell by saying, “Pebble, fly forth!” a strange feeling went through her body. When using her other spells it was different as she would only get slightly fatigued as the mana was used. Directly learning words to the spell and intentionally using her mana gave her this sort of ‘jolt’ in her body as she could feel the mana move to her hand and into the pebble, and then forced the pebble to fly forward. Wow… that’s really weird. I wonder if this is what the people of this world always go through when using their skills. Or maybe other players have felt this as well but I just haven’t heard about it yet.
After being able to use the spell decently within half an hour of practice, Haeldrix began teaching Q [Sand] and [Earth Armor]. When using [Sand] it was different from when she cast [Pebble Shot] as the mana instead gathered above her hand and then solidified into small granules of sand. [Earth Armor] gave a similar feeling except it was felt throughout her entire body.
In the process of learning spells, Q was also leaning back on Wolfy as she became more familiar with the spells. Halfway through her training though, Wolfy suddenly stood up and then disappeared, and Q despaired for a few minutes before being comforted by Kukis.
Finally, after at least an hour of learning spells she was thrown out into a group of small rat-like creatures and was forced to only use the spells she just learned. While killing rats with [Pebble Shot] and occasionally blinding them with [Sand], Q thought about the differences between her previously known spells and the ones she was using now. The spells I learned from the books and items seem to act more like skills as I can just use them by saying their names. These also have a cooldown, but the spells I just learned don’t seem to have any. As long as I have the mana and can impose my will, I can cast these spells. Even though they take a lot longer, it definitely feels stronger than what I have.
Once she finally cleared the area of rats Haeldrix was going to make Q spar with Kukis when she suddenly looked up and then clicked her tongue. “Sorry girls, I guess we’ll have to cancel the match. Apparently my turn for teaching you two is over now.”
“You had turns? I thought you were just going to keep us here until we knew a tier two spell.” Kukis seemed confused.
“Nah, you two know the basics now and that’s good enough. Further training can come after we open the door! Now go ahead. Pamerun is waiting for you upstairs.”
“Uhh… is there any chance that you can give us a lift up there?” Q dreaded having to walk up those stairs.
“Nope.” Haeldrix mercilessly refused.
*****
*Pant*... *Pant* Q and Kukis were completely out of breath once they finally reached the top of the stairs. While they walked up, Haeldrix also told them to keep using their newly learned spells which also added onto their mental fatigue. By the time they reached the top they both flopped onto the ground and lay there for a good while.
“I think… I think I’m going to logout for a while.” Kukis said. “Too much training.” She then vanished into particles of light, and Q was left alone to leave the area. As she walked out of the giant stairwell, she noticed that Brie had gone online so she sent a message.
Hi Brie! Finally got some time to play?
No problem. I’m at town hall right now. Do you know how to get there?
When Q closed the chat log, she looked up to find that Pamerun was waiting patiently in front of her. “Hello Q. Sorry to interrupt your little training session with Haeldrix, but we must move quickly if we want to open that door.”
“That’s no problem at all. But, can we wait a few minutes for Brie? She just came back.”
“But of course.” Pamerun nodded and they headed out to the front of town hall. A little while later Brie appeared and they all exchanged greetings. They then began walking towards the outskirts of the village, and on the way Pamerun was teaching Q and Brie (mostly Brie) about the wind element and how to use mana. Although Q already knew how to use mana, it was far harder for Brie since she hadn’t used any kind of magic before, and barely put any points in her wisdom stat.
Strangely enough Brie was able to pick it up quickly though, as she described feeling something similar when she was training her body in real life. Eventually they walked out into the Forest of Fog and Pamerun instructed them to take down some Fog Wisps with wind spells. Q actually learned the chant for the spell [Gust] and was curious as to how it would compare to how she casted it normally.
When they stepped out into the forest, Brie appeared to be a little nervous but after some deep breathing she managed to reel in her emotions and became incredibly calm. Q was surprised by this, as it seemed that a player’s mental fortitude wasn’t just due to their stats, but also to their mental strength in real life as well.
“Alright, I think we’ve gone far enough. I’ll bring over some Fog Wisps to you two, so get ready to cast some spells at them!” Pamerun waved and then disappeared into the fog. A few moments later, the same phenomenon occurred when the Fog Wisps appeared as they seemed to materialize into existence. Q and Brie both shouted, “Wind, go forth!” and both shot a ball of wind out of their hands. The balls flew forward and hit a Fog Wisp, damaging it heavily and temporarily caused it to de-materialize (though its name still floated in midair).
While Brie found this strange sensation of casting a spell to be amusing, Q also cast her [Gust] just by calling the name. She found out that it both invoked the cooldown time and did less damage than it did if she was chanting. That’s pretty interesting. I wonder if I can double cast them?
Q began doing more experiments with her wind spells, while Brie was familiarizing herself with the feeling of casting a spell. While the girls were taking down the wisps smoothly, all of a sudden the number of them doubled and they were completely surrounded!
“Deja vu?” Q smiled bitterly. “But this time we know that wind spells work great against them! Let’s do this Brie!”
“Yes!” Brie nodded and began chanting another wind spell.
Just as the two girls were about to cast their spells, a sudden flash of silver light flew through the forest and hit a fog wisp, instantly killing it and causing it to disperse into the air. Shocked, the girls looked towards the direction of where the light came from, only to find that there were even more flying in their direction!
Q and Brie both took stances and prepared to block them, but all the lights hit only the fog wisps and killed them, leaving the girls unharmed. Noticing that one of the lights hit a tree, Q took a closer look to find out that it was actually a small knife! That’s quite a lot of skill to be able to throw knives like that… Q once again turned her sight to the source of the knives, and saw a figure of a girl walk out from between the trees.
“Milady, I trust you are unhurt?” The girl said.
“Ah, Steph. I was wondering when you would arrive here.” Brie smiled as she recognized the person in front of them.
“Milady, though it may be presumptuous of me, please call me Phanos in game.” Phanos smiled as she looked at Brie.
----------------------------------------
And here she is. Phanos. 'Tis all. get hyped.
Also I'm too lazy to describe the spells she got, so you'll just get a summary of them later. So anyway, does anyone here watch Steven Universe? Because the Summer of Steven... UNNNGGGHHHH. Too good.
Related Picture:
Spoiler :
https%3a%2f%2fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2f564...62f598.jpg [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/38/ec/8a/38ec8a7cd76e8fb5a84b448eb762f598.jpg]
Fun-fact: The fear of chopsticks is called Consecotaleophobia.