Harb and the Orcs traveled at a much slower pace on the return trip. The Orcs that had died in battle were strapped onto a cart. They also came across several Orcs who had collapsed on the initial run. The ones who were alive were given healing and followed along afterwards. Those that had died were stripped of their armor and weapons; their bodies left for the carrion birds. The disregard for the dead here was an indication of how they treated weakness. The leaders wanted to purge the weak from their clan, but Harb thought the practice foolish.
Seeing the Orcs who had died of exhaustion did make Harb think. If you could die from the loss of energy, then he had to be careful. He recalled his second attempt to extract the essence from the dead Sorcerer, where he had been able to continue after running out of mana. His energy bar had rapidly decreased when the mana bar had gone to zero, and he had felt exhaustion setting in. He would need to watch his mana as well, since casting or maintaining a spell without mana could prove fatal.
They arrived back at the Orc camp at midday to cheers from those who had stayed back. Dura was good on her promise, and she announced that there would be a feast that night. The grunts came to deal with the cart of plunder and Orc corpses, while those who took part in the raid were ordered to rest for the day. Harb grabbed a bowl of food and went straight to his tent. He sat on the bedroll and ate the food before taking a closer look at the items that he had looted.
The crystal was a deep purple in color, about a foot in length, and heavily faceted on the ends. He mentally wondered what it did, but his interface didn’t provide any information. He set it on his lap and took the book out of his inventory. It was a thick tome that looked like a fancy Bible. There were scripted characters on the cover that Harb couldn’t read. He didn’t even know if the characters were letters, runes, or glyphs—his help feature was also silent on the matter.
He opened the book. The script on the page was at first unreadable, but the ink on the page began to move until he was able to recognize the words.
A notification flashed on his HUD, and he paused to open and read the message: Would you like to use the spell book to learn the spell nullification field, rank III? Yes/No? Excited, he mentally accepted. You lack some of the prerequisites to learn the spell: Intellect: 40; Void magic, rank I; Void magic, rank II. Would you like to be provided with the prerequisites? Yes/No? Again, he mentally accepted.
The crystal on his lap began to glow and grew warm to the touch. It was not uncomfortable, and if it was what was providing him with the things that he needed to use the book, he wasn’t about to interrupt it. The crystal began to absorb into his body, completely disappearing after nearly a minute. Then the words on the pages began to disappear. When the open pages became fully blank, the book turned to the next page on its own. The words on those pages also began to fade; once gone, the next page turned. The process continued, with the pages turning faster and faster as he absorbed the information more rapidly.
Harb had acquired a lot of mana when his Intellect increased to 40, but his mana bar was dropping in proportion to the speed at which the information was entering his mind. His energy bar was also dropping. This concerned Harb, but he felt reasonably confident that using something like this wouldn’t kill him. He grew less confident as both bars approached zero.
The book snapped closed and disappeared. Harb’s screen was flooded with notification icons, but he passed out before he could access them.
Harb awoke feeling woozy and intensely hungry. It was dark out, but he could see perfectly with his dark vision. He could hear the sounds of the feast, but he wanted to go through his messages before joining the festivities. He opened the first message as his stomach rumbled in protest. He read the first few, but there were so many, and he wanted to hurry so that he could go eat something. The information was instantly absorbed into his mind.
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He had gained experience from absorbing the crystal—which was called an amethyst knowledge stone—as well as from using the book. That experience had caused him to level several times, bringing his current level to ten. The crystal had provided him with the Intellect points, the skill void magic, and the ascended version of void magic, which was called void magic rank II.
The spell book had taught him the twice-ascended version of the nullification field spell, which was called nullification field rank III. Intrinsically, he knew that the spell put up a barrier around himself that wouldn’t allow any magic to go through at all. He could cast his blood rage spell within it, though, because the magic wouldn’t leave his body. His force of will spell was another matter: it would not work while the field was active since it required the magic to pass through it to get to his target.
He was also aware of what the lower-ranked versions of the spell did. The original spell had a high mana cost as well as a large mana upkeep. The barrier could have only been used for one encounter, provided that he didn’t cast any other spells. If he were not in combat, then the base spell could last ten minutes. After its first ascension, the spell could last for far longer, at least an hour outside of combat, provided that he wasn’t casting anything else or had any other spells that needed mana to upkeep. The mana regen rate during a fight was far lower than when he was at rest or not exerting himself. A protracted fight or a long run like he had done on the previous night would have caused problems for the duration of the second-ranked version of the spell. His current spell could keep going indefinitely so long as he had no other mana costs or upkeeps. There was an upkeep on this version of the spell, but it was trivial and would not overtax him even when fighting or exerting himself.
Why in the world didn’t the Sorcerer just use the spell book himself? Harb wondered. Well, I certainly got stupid spills from that idiot. He chanted the incantation for the spell and sensed the barrier forming around his body.
He had some choices to make concerning his increased attributes and the perks that came with hitting level ten. He had previously received a perk for level five: a new special attack called force punch. It was an unarmed strike that did damage proportionate to his Strength stat. Level ten gave him a few choices: he could receive a new spell from either blood magic or void magic or he could gain the ascended version of one of his known blood magic spells. He wondered why his new spell wasn’t part of the choice, and his help feature informed him that spells could be upgraded to one rank above the rank of the spell skill that it came from. Since Harb’s void magic skill was rank two, he could learn void spells of at most rank three, which was the strength of his nullification field. Thus, the spell could currently go no higher.
He looked at the level ten reward spell options. Absorb was a void magic spell that allowed him to draw a small amount of health, mana, or energy from a creature close to him. However, he could only choose one of the three types each time he cast the spell, and success was not guaranteed on an unwilling target. The blood magic spell, called marked, allowed him to target a creature and gain a sense of their direction and distance from him.
He then considered ranking up one of his two existing spells. He had no interest in upgrading force of will, but he looked into the blood rage spell. The upgraded version cost less mana, energy, and HP. It would also have a duration of five minutes instead of just one. That did seem juicy to him, but what he really wanted was for the amplification to increase. It might do that at rank three, but he couldn’t get spells that high until his blood magic skill made it to rank two.
In the end, he decided upon absorb for its utility, thinking that marked was more of a situational spell.
His other reward for attaining level ten was to upgrade one of his two special moves or gain a new one. He had not tried his force punch move yet, having just received it. The new option was called whirlwind, a spinning attack that could hit multiple targets. He decided to hold off on making his choice until he could test out his new special.
Thinking of testing things out, Harb decided that he should try out his flicker ability. It didn’t have a mana cost, so he thought it would work despite his nullification field spell. He stood and focused on the other side of the small tent. The ability didn’t require an incantation; he just needed to mentally activate it. He did so and was suddenly standing with his nose against the opening of the tent. Harb knew intrinsically that he could move himself to a location that he could see within 100 feet, and the ability had a two-minute cooldown, so in a fight he would have to use it sparingly.