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Chapter 6: The Grind

Over the next several weeks I spent my time trying to figure out my spells and mana flow. My main question was why my fire and water spells stopped immediately after casting them, unlike my mother, whose spells keep going as long as she wants them to. I am determined to figure out how to sustain my spells as well as my mother. Practice makes perfect, right? If only I was diligent with my schoolwork in my past life, right?!

I started by just casting my Flame spell again. I figured I would stick to Flame as it would be easier to manage than the Water spell. It would be MUCH more difficult to explain to my mother why there is a flood of water in my room. Not like a blazing fire would be any easier to explain, but my Flame spell isn't all that large, just a bit larger than a candle flame, and it doesn't last long enough to actually set anything on fire... yet.

I only get a maximum of 3 spells per day since they cost around 20MP for each cast, and I only have pathetic 70MP total. I come to the conclusion that this out is going to take some time to figure out.

The first few days I just cast Flame over and over until I ran out of MP. Why wasn't it lasting longer?! I would cast it and then it would die out in a puff of white wispy smoke almost immediately. No matter how many times I cast the spell, that was the only result. I also noticed that even with casting spells over and over, I didn't receive any messages showing any stat increases like I did with the fight with the bunny. Back then I saw messages showing Agility and Strength increases flash in my vision. I wonder if Intelligence or Mind have anything to do with spells. If they do, those stats are already elevated for me, so I wonder if I won't get boosts in those as I am already strong in those stats. Yet another thing I need to put on the shelf for later. I REALLY need a teacher for these things. Look at me actually wanting to be a student!

The next day I had a breakthrough. Up to now, what I had been doing was just casting my spell after my mana had accumulated in my hand. I noticed after my first spell of the day that as soon as the spell activated, the mana in my hand disappeared, along with the electric feeling, and so did the spells effect. This means it probably has something to do with my mana flow. What if I'm supposed to...

"Ok let's try this."

I bring my mana to my hand, and soon start to feel the shocking feeling. It's getting easier to do, and I can get to this stage much faster now than when I first started. This time, I keep the mana flowing instead of stopping it once I feel the electricity feeling.

"FLAME!!"

A flame burst forth from my palm and it stays longer, but the flame starts to get smaller and smaller, threatening to go out at any time. It's not enough mana!

"I'm not pushing enough mana to my hand! I need more! GRRRRRAAAAHHH!"

I feel my mana push harder toward my hand. The flame increases back to its original size. It also seems to stabilize a little bit as it is not flickering as much.

"There we go!! I got this!"

"Now let's see what happens if I push even more!"

I concentrate on my mana flow even harder. I concentrate and I feel the pull from my inner body increase as my mana flow increases to my hand. As a result, the size of the flame increases significantly. It is now a large flame emanating from my small hand, instead of the small flame in my palm I used to be able to manage.

"I think I understand now! Oh shit!" I say as I feel myself feel funny.

I start to feel dizzy and weak, like I am drained of energy from running around for an hour. The flame vanishes and my arm drops to my side. I'm exhausted.

Mind +1

Determination +1

"Ohh I got more stats!"

I guess I pushed my magic ability beyond what my current stats would allow for, and thus I gained points. It is kind of like working out, I guess. The more you push it, the stronger you will become.

Status Open

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"Oh wow, I guess pushing my mana like that took a toll on my endurance."

I guess that endurance points are used up not only by just casting a spell, but also by maintaining it. I guess this is the limit of what a 3-and-a-half-year-old body can handle. I guess I got ahead of myself a bit. I need to be careful. I'm not a teenager anymore. I guess I need to wait until I get a bit older. If my working out analogy is correct, then it will become easier in the future to maintain my spells the more I do it, and the higher my stats become. Good grief it's still early in the morning and I'm already ready to sleep the rest of the day. Maybe I'll take a nap before lunch.

"Christine! Lunch time!"

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I groggily wake up and roll out of bed, then head to the hearth. I am still not fully rested from this morning's magic workout.

I let out a big yawn as I walk in, smiling at the delicious smell of cooking meat.

"Hi mommy."

"Woah looks like you just ran to Creshent and back! You ok dear?"

"Yes, just tired. I was asleep."

"Hmm, maybe you are growing. Your father is really tall, so maybe you are going to be tall like him!"

I just shrug at that comment. Becoming a woman with the physique of my father doesn't seem like such an appealing thing... I imagine a female Arnold Schwarzenegger in my mind. the image makes me shudder and I quickly push that image away.

I ate my lunch and retired to my room. I want to see if I can learn more about these stats and what they do. I flip myself onto my bed and open my status screen. Let's see if I can do a little studying. Look at me, a good little student now! Wouldn't my previous father be proud!

"Yeah right!" I say with a chuckle.

"I see! The only way to get you to study is by studying your fantasy BULLSHIT!" I say trying my best to imitate my father's voice.

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"Woah, my MP is full!"

"Wait... I got a buff from my lunch?! NO WAY!!!"

It would seem that eating meals not only replenishes your stats, but also provides a nice little buff as well. How have I never noticed this before?! Ok let's see if I can get some explanation to these buffs. I concentrate on the HP and a separate screen pops up with an explanation.

Hit Points: The amount of damage you can take before KO. Left number is remaining Hit Points; right number is Maximum Hit Points.

Nice! if I concentrate on a stat, I get a nice explanation tooltip! Ok let's do MP! It looks like I also got an answer to one of my previous questions. If my HP reaches 0 you just get knocked unconscious. It doesn't say for how long though. Hopefully in the future I can coax out more information from my mother.

Mana Points: The amount of mana available to cast spells and certain skills. Left number is remaining Mana Points; right number is Maximum Mana Points.

"Oh ok, so there are skills that may require MP as well."

That's good to know! I wonder if they would be magic based weapon skills or something. That doesn't matter now. I got a while before I get to that, so let's move on.

Endurance: The amount of endurance you have. The more skills, actions, or spells you utilize, the faster you deplete endurance. As endurance points approach 0, the more fatigue sets in. When endurance reaches 0 points, you will not be able to complete further actions without resting to restore endurance.

The rate at which endurance is depleted is dependent on current stats in relation to skills that utilize those particular stats. The higher your stats, the less endurance skills, actions, and spells use up.

"Ok, so basically the stronger I get, and the higher my stats get, the longer it takes me to get tired. That makes sense." My working out theory is starting to be proved to be a correct one.

Stamina: The amount of Stamina you have determines proportionally how many Hit points you have. The amount of Hit Points gained per point of Stamina may be affected by buffs, equipment stats, and negative status effects. Base amount is 20 Hit Points per 1 point of Stamina.

Strength: Affects the amount of damage you do with physical weapons, martial arts, and skills. Strength also has a slight effect on how much physical damage you take. Also effects other skills that have a physical component to the skill. Higher strength allows for wielding of heavier weapons and increases the rate at which you can attack with heavy weaponry.

Intelligence: Affects magical damage of spells and mana-based skills, as well as amount of healing done by healing spells, skills, and certain items.

Mind: Affects the efficiency of spells and mana-based skills. As Mind increases, the amount of Mana Points required to cast a spell or mana-based skill, decreases. Diminishing returns are in effect for this stat, particularly with high level spells and skills, limiting its effectiveness the higher your skill number reaches. Lower-level spells and skills are originally affected by diminishing returns but are no longer subjected to diminishing returns the higher your level becomes.

Ahh this is making some sense now. The higher my Mind stat, the less my spells will cost in MP, and eventually these low level spells I have will cost next to nothing in terms of MP consumption, as I out-level them. This is all the more reason to get out and start grinding levels.

Agility: Affects the accuracy of attacks with light weaponry (Daggers, Claws, Knuckles, certain swords, etc.), ranged weaponry, and martial arts techniques. Also affects accuracy and effectiveness stealth-based skills, such as sneaking, lock-picking, and pickpocketing.

Speed: affects speed of movement, physical attacks, and ranged attacks. The speed at which spells can be cast, as well as how fast magical projectiles travel, is marginally affected by Speed.

Defense: Affects the amount of physical damage received. The amount of damage mitigated depends on your Defense stat in relation to the strength stat of your opponent. The higher your Defense is over your opponent's Strength; the more damage mitigation is in effect. Conversely, the higher your opponent's Strength is over your Defense value, the more their attacks are inclined to ignore your Defense.

Magic Defense: Affects the amount of magical damage received. The amount of damage mitigated depends on your Magical Defense stat in relation to the Intelligence stat of your opponent. The higher your Magical Defense is over your opponent's Intelligence; the more damage mitigation is in effect. Conversely, the higher your opponent's Intelligence is over your Magic Defense value, the more their attacks are inclined to ignore your Magic Defense.

Determination: Affects the amount of damage dealt by both physical and magic attacks, as well as the amount of Hit Points restored by healing spells. Has an overall greater effect of reducing Endurance demand of spells, actions, skills, and spells, than the stat increases of any single stat.

Critical hit: Affects the amount of physical and magical damage dealt, as well as Hit points restored by healing spells. The higher the value, the higher the frequency with which your hits will be critical AND the higher the potency of critical hits.

Wow, there is so much information here to process, but it seems I got a good idea of what each stat does now. The issue is how they all relate to each other and how I can focus on certain stats to benefit my desired build or goal. Now, let's get to the real important one. I open my skills tab.