A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga)

by Thomas Whipple

  LEVEL UP! Your Familiar Thia has increased in level by 1. Thia is now level 15. As your Familiar she gets 5 points to apply to her Stats and 1 Talent Point. Thia currently has 5 undistributed SP and 1 undistributed TP. You can distribute these from your familiar’s status page. Continue to increase your Familiar’s level to follow the path of true power. Fight for the RIGHT to survive!

  Congratulations! You have met your second professional milestone and can now select a professional specialty. Your level will be on hold and any gains to your character after this point will be deferred for one day. At the end of one day if you have not selected a professional specialty, one will be automatically assigned to you. You can access the specialty selection menu from your status page.

  I also gained a level in my Fire and Air type magic. It seems like using my spells against level appropriate enemies may help my magic level faster. For the level up I start with Thia. One of her SP goes into VIT and then the rest goes evenly between WIS and INT. For her TP I purchase the new skill that opened up after Ball Lightning. The talent is called Ball and Chain and is a combination of Chain Lightning and Ball Lightning. It fires a ball of lightning like Ball Lightning, but when it explodes it sends out more balls of lightning to explode on other targets. It takes three talent points to master and on the first it will send extra attacks to two more enemies on impact. We discussed this the night after we got to level fourteen so that we would be prepared and not need to waste time.

  My upgrades are next and I’m anxious to see what the next tier in my Celestial Mage talent tree will offer, even if I can’t choose anything from it yet. When it comes to my stats I want to continue increasing my primary ones as a mage, so I add another point to WIS and INT. Then one goes into VIT, because everyone needs more Health and recovery the higher their level gets. With the one extra point I get as a Void Human I want to make sure that I’m a little more balanced in my secondary stats. I decide that I’ll add it to AGI and STR with it mostly going to AGI each level. Having figured out how I will distribute my points each level I take this level to place the last point into STR.

  Moving on I open the talent tree and use the one TP available to buy the second and final tier of the Magic Armor talent, maxing it out. Now my buff adds ten percent to spell power as well as ten percent damage resistance from magical or physical sources. After I place the point and confirm it the fog pushes back revealing the next tier of talents down the tree. That is where I find what I’m looking for. There are a lot of good choices here including Automated Defense and Spell Armament. The one that gives me the kind of freedom I have been hoping for though is called Spatial Door. It has three tiers and I’ll be getting it at my next level for sure.

  Looking at my status page I see the flashing space next to Specialty. With the others on guard and the floor cleared except for the boss room I focus on the flashing spot. Immediately everything goes black and I get the sensation of falling. I’m not worried this time since I went through the same thing when I chose my profession. A moment later I‘m standing on nothing once again and the stars spark into existence all around. Looking into the distance in front of me I see more lights twinkle into being and then grow brighter. The approaching lights get closer and closer until there are more than a dozen surrounding me. They all take a moment and then the balls of light resolve into images of me.

  The images change this time, forming an idea of what they are. One image flicks through images of me enchanting weapons of different types. One seems to focus on weapons that are magic focuses. Others show me enchanting different types of armor. One even looks like me casting my Magic Cloak, Haste and Magic Armor. The one that grabs my attention shows me claiming the Mana Fount and blessing weapons on it. I go over the others one at a time but they don’t interest me like the one with the Altar. It’s a mystery that tugs on my consciousness. While many of the others give clear indications of what they may entail, this one draws me back again and again. Anything involving the Mana Fount must be powerful.

  Giving into my own curiosity I focus on it and get sucked in. The information floods my subconscious making my head spin with all the information passing through it. Bonding! I qualified for it by bonding to multiple things including my familiar, the Mana Fount and the weak bond formed when I had the Altar bless the materials that eventually became my staff and dagger. That is all I can really catch in the fast moving stream of information that goes by in a second. Coming to my senses again, I see that the flashing space in my status screen has stopped and is now showing my specialty as Bonding. Now that the selection is made and I’m not under a time restriction I decide to leave the talent distribution to when I have more time.

  Finished with our break we search the room. Finding nothing else of interest we head back the way that we came. At the closed door we prepare to enter and cast what buffs we can. Casting my Haste spell on Timbre I think about how useful it is to everyone. It actually accelerates the time around a person. This means that attack speed and casting is all increased as well. The trade off though is that it has a cooldown. Thinking about how I can get around this I realize that I’m an Enchanter. I should be able to get around the issue of a cooldown if I enchant the active effect on something my team is wearing. Then I would be able to cast it on myself and they would cast it from their gear, but that is something for later. Right now it’s time for a boss fight.

  The doors swing open without a sound when Timbre pushes on them and we get our first look at the room beyond. The room is large and clear of any obstructions, but that is not what draws our attention. On the other side of the room stands a seven foot tall abomination of a zombie. Reminds me of Frankenstein’s Monster with all the stitches it has. It’s muscled like a Viking and has four arms. All the body parts are matched well in size, but they obviously come from different bodies. The skin color of each is slightly different and everything is connected with thick stitches running crisscross all over it. It’s wearing a pair of shorts that are shredded at the bottom and nothing else. It also has a different weapon in each hand. In the top hand on the left he has a war hammer, top right is a short sword, followed by a short one handed ax and a meat cleaver on the bottom left and right.

  Undead Abomination, level 16. Floor Boss, 100% HP

  We enter the room and look around for any additional enemies but see nothing. Turning our attention back to the boss we slowly advance. There is no response from our opponent until we hit about halfway across the room. When Timbre crosses the halfway point of the roughly 100 foot squared room the boss raises its head and bellows out a challenging roar. The door behind us slams shut of its own accord and the abomination charges. We stop there and let it come to us as Azzaria, Thia and I take advantage of our range. Azzaria fires off arrows as Thia and I use our single target lightning attacks hoping to get a paralysis effect. It works, and about halfway to us the boss freezes up for a second. It’s brief but allows us to get in another attack before it can engage Timbre.

  For my next spell I hit it with Ice Lance. The boss sees my attack and crosses all four arms in front of it to protect its upper body and head. Thankfully, I have an abnormal amount of control with my spells due to my Advanced Mana Control ability and high wisdom stat. As the spear of ice approaches the protected chest I use my influence and instead of hitting it mid chest the spell drops and impales it through the thigh. Frost starts to form around the wound and when it starts forward again it’s visibly slowed. It takes a couple more steps as I begin my next casting and Thia continues to use Zapp on it. An ethereal shield flies forward as Timbre gets into the action. The impact of her skill causes the Floor Boss to stop again. That is when I finish my next cast.

  The floor beneath the monster’s feet turns lighter and sandy as the abomination starts to sink. Apparently it has a resistance to Earth magic or it’s just that strong, but it begins to wade forward in the quicksand. Pushing through the sand does slow it down some more and gives us a few more shots at it. A couple more arrows from
Azzaria and a few more lightning spells from me and Thia strike the boss before it can get out of my spell. Timbre waits patiently at the edge of the quicksand for the abomination to enter striking distance. When it gets there it has already lost twenty percent of its health, not that it shows. The boss swings its left weapons at the same time which Timbre steps back to avoid. As she steps forward she ducks behind her shield and raises the hammer over her head. The follow up from both right side weapons clangs off her shield. Thankfully the new mithril shield is big enough to catch both weapons. On the other hand, the massive strength behind the double blow prevents her from countering and makes her stumble to the side.

  Not letting up our attack I’m monitoring its health at the same time. When it drops below seventy five percent health nothing happens and I continue to cast Lightning at it. Timbre recovers quickly and uses her growl to draw its attention since it started in my direction. She dodges a couple more swings like the last combo and is able to turn it to face away from us. With its back exposed I switch tactics a little and cast a fireball. The massive creature shields Timbre from the splash damage the Fireball causes and it stumbles forward, right into Timbre’s hammer. With a crunch, she connects with the arm holding the cleaver near its body and the arm goes limp, dropping the weapon.

  Now that the back of the boss is burning I switch again. Using Wind Slash I concentrate my attacks on the lower arm with the ax. The attacks themselves don’t do much damage, but they do cut into the arm, the resulting air also fans the flames burning away at the boss’ HP. A moment later the boss drops below fifty percent health and roars again. This time though there is a three second debuff that stuns us. During those three seconds the boss raises its three good arms above his head and then slams them into the ground. The resultant shockwave the move created knocks all of us into the walls of the square room. I’m glad that we were in the center of the room since the damage probably would have been way worse if the full force of the shockwave had been able to smash us against the wall.

  I think the boss may have dropped the aggro list when it did the move and it’s still on fire thanks to yours truly. This means that I automatically top the charts when it comes to who the boss wants to kill. How do I know this? Well I don’t, but the fact that I’m the one the boss is charging is a pretty good clue. I get up and cast my Mana Barrier spell just in time for it to take the first couple of strikes from the boss. Cracks start to form in my barrier immediately but I get a second to hit it in the face with a Lightning bolt. Then I use my Folded Space spell to step right and appear across the room and behind Timbre, who is charging towards the undead’s back.

  Flipping around, the abomination is just in time to take another projected shield to the face. Its head whips back, but then it only seems mad because it charges her. The four armed undead Viking leads with its short sword and barrels at my beautiful companion. I use Folded Space again to appear off to one side and resume casting Wind Blades until the arm I’m attacking falls off. The damage drops its health a lot more than I thought it would. This also brings me back into focus for the gigantic monster. Wishing I had a little better crowd control for this guy I cast Quicksand again. It slows him down and lets us all attack him once again. When it gets free I cast Folded Space to jump to the other side of the room.

  Chasing after me again it gets bashed with Timbre’s shield. Off its cooldown, she uses her growl to taunt it once more and bring its focus back to her. She dodges the blows and deflects a couple that she can’t. The whole time the rest of us are pouring on the damage. Things change when the Undead Abomination is brought down to ten percent. Without warning it starts to spin, arms out. Even the useless arm that is broken is flung out like a club by the whirling floor boss. The rest of us are ok, but Timbre is close and not expecting the change of routine. She is able to get the shield up in time to take the hits but they are strong enough to still cause her damage. With just the three hits from one rotation her HP drops by a fifth.

  On the second rotation the first two hits knock her shield out of place and the flailing, weaponless hand strikes her in the shoulder. The blow brings her just under half her HP and flings her to the side. This gets her out of the whirlwind of strikes, close enough for Azzaria to heal her some. The fire on the boss went out when it started its spin but Thia and I haven’t stopped hitting it with lightning. After clearing Timbre out of the way it starts spinning toward us, forcing us to back up as we cast. We are able to back up fast enough to keep ahead of it and we start to lead it around the room. That changes when a red haze surrounds the abomination and its speed doubles. It’s down to five percent HP but we can’t cast as it is close to us now. We are running away at full speed, unable to concentrate enough to aim and cast. “Timbre!” I shout out. “We need you to stall it so that we can cast. You heal her as fast as you can Az. If you get low on health then disengage Timbre.”

  Back to full health, Timbre hits the boss with a Shield Projection and then jumps in front of the spinning monster. The ringing of weapons on her shield is nearly deafening as she hunkers down behind it. A green glow appears around her after the first few hits to bring her HP up a little, but it isn’t replacing all she lost. Timbre uses her Shield Wall skill and I can see a shinning shield larger than her actual one appear in front of her. This seems to reduce the damage she is taking to a manageable amount for Azzaria. Free again to attack, Thia starts firing off Zapp and flinging feather knives in between.

  I do a double take at the sight of Thia’s attack; I don’t understand how it’s possible. The feathery blades just materialize in her hand as she flings them. Having no feathers on her body in this form I had just assumed she couldn’t use that skill. Normally the feathers already on her wings are used and just grow back really quickly after use. That is easier to ignore as an oddity, but blades from nothing? All I can think to that is magic. Dragging my mind away from the mysteries of the universe and magic I focus back on the immediate danger to life and limb. Thankfully, my distraction was short lived and Timbre is still holding steady. I take the extra few seconds respite to duel cast Mana Bolt through my staff, overcharging it as well.

  After Timbre’s skill runs out she starts taking too much damage to heal and is forced to jump out of the way with only ten percent left on the bar I can see for her in the corner of my vision. As soon as she is out of the way the whirling dervish of a boss heads for us squishy casters. Seeing as my time is up I release my spell and a Mana Bolt as big around as a small plate forms in front of me. With a thought it zips across the intervening space and into the boss. The bolt hits it in the spinning blur that is its head and with the last percent of health disappearing, the head is blown to pieces. Defeated, the floor boss’ body slows as it spins a few more times from momentum, flinging chunks of flesh, teeth and bone in all directions. Then it falls over on its side, unmoving. A moment of silence falls, and the body turns into light and floats away.

  Left in place of the boss are two things. One is the cleaver, and the other is a skill book. The skill book is for a skill called Rage. It will increase melee attack power by 200% for ten seconds, but the downside of it is that it reduces defense by fifty percent for ten seconds after the skill completes. This goes to Timbre as our only dedicated melee fighter. The cleaver though was a rather interesting item. Like the knife we collected from the worm earlier I didn’t have much in the way of combat ability. What it does have is a ten percent increase to flavor for any food prepared using it. It sounds like a luxury item that could get a lot of use. It’s also mildly disturbing since we found it by having a zombie wield it toward our sweet, sweet meats.

  Placing the cleaver in my inventory for later we all look around the room for an exit. A shimmering on the wall directly across from the entrance catches our attention, and a moment later a door is visible. Opening the door reveals a spiral staircase leading down. “Lets head down to see what is in store for us” I tell the girls.

  “It has taken a long time to clear this floo
r and it must be close to night. Maybe we should camp here” Azzaria speaks up. This is followed by the other two agreeing about being tired.

  “I am not comfortable spending the night in the boss room. Lets check downstairs first and if we need to we can head back to the safe room.” They all saw the wisdom in that and agree to take a peek downstairs. Heading down the stairs for what must be fifty feet or more, we are pleasantly surprised at the message we all get.

  This chamber is a Safe Room. Aggressive actions cannot be taken against or by your party while in this room. Creatures of the dungeon will not follow you in and health regeneration is increased when within. If your party violates the sanctity of any Safe Room then the exit portal will be closed and the benefits of the Safe room will be revoked.

  The room looks exactly like the entrance chamber that was also a Safe Room except that the door to the stairs takes the place of the entrance portal. Having found our safe place to rest for the night I pull out our bed from storage and set it up in a corner. We all eat the rations that we brought and, not having to worry about attack, we all lay in bed together and let sleep take us.

  Chapter 7

  Hanging above a world glowing in blue light I exist outside it all. Soon the world gets larger and I fall towards its surface. An unfamiliar continent approaches as I fall through dark clouds. When I clear the obstruction it is evident that it wasn’t clouds, but smoke. Beneath the smog I find the cause. An unknown city surrounded by a trampled and muddy plain is burning as an attacking army pours through a breach in the defensive wall. I finally stop my decent to hang above the city with a crystal clear picture of what is happening below.