by Dakota Krout
You have died! You were killed by: Trent the Treant, Guardian of The Northmost Zone of the Forest of Chlorophyll Chaos. Calculating… you lose 3,000 experience!
Chapter Twenty-one
Joe stepped out of the respawn room eight in-game hours later, appearing at the shrine he had most recently converted. “Ick, it’s a half day walk even to get back to the forest from here.”
His rumination didn't last long. His team would likely appear shortly, and he wanted to see how things were going with his current quest to free Tatum. Joe pulled open the quest log and looked it over, the hope in his eyes quickly simmering away.
Quest update: Paying a Great Debt. 8,075/13,000,000 divine energy. Current sources of divine energy: 131 Followers, 1 Altar, 4 Shrines, 1 Temple (Mid-sized).
“It’s not great, but it isn't nothing.” He sighed and sat to wait for a moment. There was a flash of white light, then another, and soon his entire team was around him. “Hey, guys. You want to go back there right away or run back to the guild and train up a little? Maybe get more specialized stuff?”
“Yeah, let’s take a couple days and train up.” Poppy seemed much happier today, and it didn't take long to figure out why. “I found that my girl will be in what amounts to a daycare, and I can go there any time I wish. There is a second portal for me in my ‘logout’ room, and it leads to an island in the sky where the kids get the best education, care, and food possible. A little paradise that gets harder for them as they grow up until they need to go out into the world at sixteen. She will be more ready for this world than I ever was. Her grandma chose to stay with her in that area as well.”
“I’m really glad to hear it.” Jaxon went in for a hug, and for the first time, Poppy didn't dodge away from it.
“Me too.” Poppy sighed softly. It was obvious that this had been a serious stressor for him.
“Joe, while we take a break, you should swing by the college and get some spells that are effective against plants. A classic fireball maybe?” Alexis nudged him into reacting, and Joe nodded right away.
“Will do. I’ll see if I can find some other stuff for this specific area as well. Meet you all near the Pathfinder’s Hall for skill training?” The others agreed, flashing away using the fast travel function of the shrines. Joe prepared himself for a crowd and, in an instant, appeared in Ardania. “Time to go get some spells!”
He started making his way through the crowd and was annoyed to the point of nearly lashing out within a few minutes. His Exquisite Shell had kept him from being crushed twice and had kept wandering hands out of his pockets at least three times that he could detect. Beyond that, he didn't have the raw physicality to push his way through the press of people milling about. In an attempt to work around this situation, Joe looked up, crouched, and jumped.
Joe left the ground like a bottle rocket, reaching the apex of his jump and flipping to land on the roof of a building. He caught the edge and pulled himself up the rest of the way. He laid there for a moment, gasping like a fish on land; he had only lost about half his stamina in one go to get here. “Okay. Effective and fun. But. Need. To boost. Constitution!”
After managing to get to his feet, Joe walked along the city-block-length rooftop and stood at the edge. For almost anyone else, the prospect of jumping to his next target would have been rejected; he needed to cross the street. Joe backed up a few feet, getting a running start, and jumped off the edge. His trajectory looked very unrealistic, almost against the laws of physics because he jumped in a nearly straight line. At the apex of his leap, he came down in another straight line to land on the building across the street, exactly where he had been aiming.
“Alright. I’m convinced,” Joe spoke aloud, ignoring his current position on the hot stone shingles of the roof. “Gonna do some constitution and strength training. This is way too cool to not use it more often.”
He looked over the edge at the position he had started in. There was a man in orange monk robes that had been right in front of him when he started, and now, that man was still only about halfway to Joe’s current position. “Looks like I am still making good time, even with the resting in between.”
Now back on his feet, he marched along the roof and hopped over to the next one; a much shorter distance. Joe continued this until he got near the merchant area, and the crowd started to thin. The guard presence here was much higher, and no one wanted to jostle them or get too close if they didn’t need to do so. Now he was faced with another issue. How did he get down? If there were other buildings with handy ladders or roofing much closer to the ground, then this path would be more well-traveled, but he was twelve feet off the ground at the lowest point, and he needed to…
“Hold up. Did I jump twelve feet straight up from a standstill?” Joe questioned his own feats, trying to remember if the… “No, wait. The roof on that building was lower. This area is more affluent. Maybe there are a lot of people that use this ‘skyway’. Still… ground…”
He looked down and decided to dangle off the edge to cut down the distance by about half. With twenty-three points in strength, he was about a fifth stronger than average humans from earth had been and was able to keep himself stable. Joe took a moment to wonder what the average stats for humanity were now… then got back to moving. He let go and landed well, the damage reduced to nothing thanks to his Jumping skill. “Now to the College, and I’ll– Wait! No! To the library!”
The Mage’s College had given the Library a large collection of ‘useless’ spells. These were all sorts of spells that either were so inefficient or difficult to use that they were deemed to be trash, even if a good chunk of them would have been useful and powerful if they were used. Joe decided to go through the trash heap; it would be better for him if the College didn't know every spell he could bring to bear. Not that they had an issue currently, but it was better to be safe than sorry with massive organizations that had nearly unlimited funds.
Joe nodded to Boris as he walked through the doors, and the head librarian nodded back and got back to reading. It seemed everyone had goals they wanted to accomplish. He tromped up the stairs, getting to floor three and a half and entering the room that had been dedicated to the College’s donations. Just as the last time Joe had been here, he was surrounded by interesting titles. It really was too bad that most of these books shone a dull gray in his sight; he wanted to use all of them. Sadly, it would take hours to even get one of them to a useful state, and then he would still need to train that spell up to a point where it would be useful against the creatures he was now up against. So, he needed something specific.
“Instant Insect Repellant, no need. My shield already works for that,” Joe was muttering as he perused the unorganized shelves. “Party Decoration version three, no thanks. What does that even…? No, focus! Wildfire? Put you in the ‘maybe’ bin. Yeesh, that’s a dark book, though. Gonna take a lot of effort to make it work… Root Reducer? Sure, that might actually be something else, given that the title is dark. Plantomancy? Is this a primer on an entire field of magic?”
Joe looked at the most recent book he picked up; it was the size of a small, one-year-old child. There were so many gradations of correct and false statements that the book almost gave him a seizure when he looked at it from the side. “Would this turn into a class granting book if I corrected it? Good lord, how long would that take? Put that in the ‘long term’ section.”
After a solid hour of selecting books, he narrowed his search to his top five. “Wildfire, Root Reducer, Weed-Be-Gone, Jack’s Tree-Fell, Deadfall, Dale’s Shattered Earth.”
He looked at the strange, gimmicky names, and had to wonder if the College had a requirement of making a spell or something. He had no idea why a majority of these existed in the first place. “Let me think… Wildfire. I think you lose. My affinity is all about darkness and water, and you would be weaker than options I could get in that arena. Same deal with Tree-Fell, Deadfall, and Shattered Earth. So, either Root Reducer or Weed-Be-Gone
.”
After reading through both, he decided that Root Reducer was his best bet. The other was used to remove dandelions at best, and it was an over-time sort of spell. Root Reducer looked like a solid answer to Ents, as it would remove a foot of roots per five seconds. If they needed to take the Ents down, they would be able to do so when their roots were completely shriveled and the treant fell over. Maybe not a hugely useful spell outside of the forest, but who knew?
Joe decided that if this didn't look like it was going to work for him, he would come back and learn a spell from the College before they headed out. He left the library and Ardania entirely, getting back to his guild in a short half-hour thanks to his fast travel route. Joe went to the Pathfinder’s Hall right away and descended into the truly potent area of this building. The building was actually a Grand Ritual Hall, but only a few people would ever be informed of this fact. In the deepest area was a room that allowed him to configure it to his needs on a whim.
A desk was waiting for him, along with plenty of light. He had stocked the area with paper and ink, and he was glad that he had set everything up on his last visit. He got to work, writing out all the important and true areas, then looking into areas of the slim spellbook that were gray but not black. Lots of ‘required motions’ went into the trash, but what really intrigued Joe was a small section of notes that detailed complaints the creator of the spell had. Apparently, the man felt that when he channeled the spell, he would feel invasive mana trying to enter him.
Joe tapped his chin. Did this spell have a feedback mechanism? He hadn't seen anything in the world so far that hinted at vampirism or life steal, only effects like mana burn or extra damage. He was sure they existed somewhere, but there was a strong possibility that more potent spells were used and controlled by more magical races. If they ever found Elves or Dwarves and were able to work with them… he was certain they would have access to better abilities, and Joe wanted them.
Until then… it was time to see if he could turn this spell into a potent new ability.
Chapter Twenty-two
Joe stumbled out of the basement of the Grand Ritual Hall the next day, a taglock vanishing into his codpiece just as he opened the door to the town. He felt the need for coffee, but his sleep-deprivation had paid off. He had managed to create a clean spellform for the root reducing spell, and after putting it on a scroll, he had learned the spell. That wasn't even the best part; after creating another scroll, he had successfully integrated it into a ritual. That ritual had been activated and assigned to the taglock he just put away. If they found a treant or something similar that a channeled spell wasn't enough for, hopefully the ritual would be able to handle it. He had even gained a point in Ritual Magic after making it.
You have learned a spell: Wither Plant (Beginner V). Casting this spell on a plant will cause its roots to shrivel. By channeling the spell for at least ten seconds, mana from the plant will begin to flow back into the caster. Can only be cast on plants or plant-based lifeforms that have roots. Cost: 5n mana where n = skill level. Effect: Reduce the length of a plant’s roots by .1n inches. Mana returned by channeling: .5T where T = mana cost per second.
Right now, a single cast would allow Joe to cut back roots by an inch and a half, but by channeling, he could quickly destroy a root system. Not to mention, after ten seconds, the mana cost would be effectively halved. He was excited to try it out! He started walking around the area, and it didn't take him too long to find some bristly weeds—the kind that look like dandelion leaves, but instead of little yellow flowers, they had spikes. Joe knew from his experience getting these out of his lawn that they had deep roots, so they would make for a perfect test.
“Wither Plant!” Joe demanded, channeling his mana through his staff. A corkscrew of black water fountained from his staff, sinking into the plant and vanishing. If he didn't see the mana flowing through the air and his reserves dipping, he would think that there was no effect. About ten seconds later, the plant was showing no signs of motion or faltering, and Joe was getting suspicious. There was no mana coming back into him. That either meant that he was casting the spell wrong, or the plant had no roots any longer.
He poked the plant with his staff, and the entire thing moved. “Oh, well, there we go. No roots. Strange that there wasn't any notice… but I suppose I can always just keep an eye on the mana return.”
Joe walked around and removed four more of the small plants, only stopping when he got a notification.
Wither Plant (Beginner VI). Woo, are you usually this fast or are just extra excited about this spell?
“That was fast.” Joe looked at his hands, then around, trying to come up with an explanation for the rapid advancement. His eyes landed on the Pathfinder’s Hall not far from him, and his eyes lit up. “Right! I gain skills at four times the regular speed, and the building boosts that even further! Is our guild going to get overpowered?”
Enticing visions of his guild becoming a major superpower filled his thoughts, and he had to shake them off. He kept working at his skill but over the next few hours was only able to get it up to Beginner eight. He shook his head at the thought, ‘only’ got to that after learning the spell this morning. He decided to change up his routine and went over to where the guild had set up a small training area. “Excuse me, I’m looking for strength and constitution characteristic training. You guys have anything for that?”
The guard looked familiar to Joe, but he couldn't place the face to a name. He had very good posture though, almost as though he saw a chiropractor… regularly… “You! Are you on Jaxon’s team?”
“No idea what you mean!” Joe stammered nervously, backing away. “I’ll come back!”
“Hey! Not so fast!” The guard let a half-smile show on his face. “I’m the only person running those courses right now, so if you want ‘em here, you gotta come to me either way!”
Joe plastered a fake smile on his face. “Great, great! Can I get your name?”
“Jay. Come with me.” Jay walked closer to a box, pointing at it with a wide grin. “Hop on in. Doing both at the same time requires two hours of effort at the first threshold. That where you are?”
“Yes, but only have me going for thirty minutes, please.” Joe was going to continue, planning to explain why he wanted that, but Jay shook his head with a snort.
“You’ll get nothing out of it,” he warned, though there was a glint in his eyes. “It is painful, and you gotta keep at it.”
“Thirty minutes,” Joe resolutely reaffirmed.
“Fine by me. Strip to your skivvies.” Jay pointed at the box. “You stand there holding this square shield up. I pour hot coals on top, and we keep slowly adding weight the entire time. What’s your strength at?”
“Twenty-three. Constitution is at twenty-eight.” Joe nervously got into the man-height box wearing only his game-equipped loincloth. One side of the box was empty, he assumed so that people could dash out if the training was too much for them.
Jay nodded. “All good. That means we use hotter coals but less of them.”
Joe picked up a scorched, metal shield and got in position. Jay had grabbed a shovel and dumped the first load on Joe. “Time starts now!”
The handles were already hot. Not enough to burn him, but they were getting close. Hot ash drifted down with each shovelful that was added, as well as each time the wind blew even a little. In just a few minutes, he had painful welts popping up on his skin. If he couldn't heal himself at the end of this, he could tell that he would have already jumped out and away. Joe’s perception was fifty-three, which was almost double the raw score of constitution as well as being an entire threshold higher. He. felt. Everything.
“Keep going!” Jay called down, helping Joe. He hadn’t been expecting that. “It’s only a little pain, and you look like someone who is getting unbalanced as a character! Only way to numb that pain again is to get expensive, otherwise impractical items… or boost your constitution! You keep running at perception,
you won't be able to handle walking through grass too quickly!”
That took Joe right out of what he was doing and made him think about the repercussions for becoming too unbalanced. Where else was this going to play out? He knew that a higher constitution made people denser and heavier; would they get to a point that they couldn’t lift themselves if they didn't also work on their strength? If people worked on strength and constitution but not dexterity, would they become like bodybuilders that had so much mass that they couldn't move properly? Joe shuddered as he thought about them hiring someone to wipe their butt for them because their arms couldn't bend that far.
“That’s time! Move away!” Jay called to him, pulling Joe out of the spiral that his mind had gone down. Joe stepped out and angled the shield to let the coals fall into the box. Then he healed and Cleansed himself, reading the notification that had popped up.
Characteristic point training completed! +1 to Strength and Constitution! These stats cannot be increased further by any means other than system rewards for twenty-four hours game time.
“Now you see why I recommend staying.” Jay shook his head at Joe. “That was a waste for you. You only had to keep at it for another hour and a half, and you would have gotten two points.”
“Thanks, Jay. I appreciate you looking out for me.” Joe grinned and started putting his clothes back on. “I’ll keep at it!”
“Do that!” Jay called back as Joe waved over his shoulder. “Joe, I meant now!
“See you tomorrow!” Joe ignored the follow-up grumbles, choosing instead to focus on his current skill. Thanks to his spell efficiency, he could cast the spell for a total of eighteen seconds if he got no mana returned or twenty-six seconds at maximum mana return. That meant he could only cause a tree to lose about forty-six inches—or just under four feet—of roots. A quick search of the internet at the coffee shop—one of the only places to get internet without respawning—told him that roots can get twenty feet deep and thirty-five across. That was for standard, non-magical trees. He had a feeling that he would need to get this skill a lot higher.
