Dravincia

by Blake Severson

  You have gained 1200 experience in Earth Magic for successfully casting Earthen Wall (x20).

  Congratulations, you have reached level 7 in Earth Magic. Increases the effect of your earth magic spells by 18%. What is your obsession with dirt?

  They once again resumed their trek and went right back into their conversation. Arthur was feeling on top of the world, getting to spend his day with the enchanting beauty. He almost felt bad that it was eventually going to end, but he resolved to make the most of it while he had it. With his incredible regeneration rate, he could recover his entire mana pool in about twenty minutes. They spent another half-hour visiting and then went back to the wall once more. He decided to do the final row for the foundation of this part of the wall. He walked through for another twenty casts of Earthen Wall, and the bottom layer was complete. It was three foot deep, one foot tall, and sixty-feet long. It was a rather remarkable feat for an hour worth of work. He was admiring the job when he checked the experience and an idea dawned on him.

  You have gained 1200 experience in Earth Magic for successfully casting Earthen Wall (x20).

  There was no reason that he couldn’t also benefit from the work order system. He was sure it didn’t often happen in larger cities. They probably hired someone to work in an administrator position just to do this work and didn’t expect them to ever do any of the work themselves. He should be able to make work orders for himself and turn them in just as he had for some of the others. He would be able to take advantage of the loophole he discovered yesterday as well and turn in items he had already completed. He had two open slots in work orders since he hadn’t reassigned the cooking orders for Daniel’s group. He decided to make one work order for himself to test it out real quick.

  Work Order

  Completion Criteria:

  Complete a foundation layer for 5 sections of the wall around the village. The part must measure a minimum of three-foot deep, one foot tall, and three-foot-wide.

  Provided Materials:

  Materials to be provided by person fulfilling order.

  Completion Timeline: 5 Days

  Rewards:

  1 Meal token to be used at the Village Inn.

  500 Earth Magic Experience.

  300 Character Experience.

  As before, he had only filled out the criteria and the base reward of one token. He had hoped the rewards would be higher for the experience if the requirements and rewards were different. He was not disappointed. With the compensation being set so low, it allowed the system to compensate with higher than typical experience rewards. That order was accepted as well as three others just like it.

  Congratulations, you have completed the Work Order: Wall Base for Alem’s Crossing for the following rewards: 4 Meal Token, 2000 Earth Magic Experience, and 1200 Character Experience. (x4)

  Congratulations, you have reached level 8 in Earth Magic. Increases the effect of your earth magic spells by 21%. You still here?

  Wow, what a rush. That was an insane amount of experience for such a short amount of time. This should give him a fantastic chance to try and get ahead of things in the limited time they had left. He also decided it was time to check on the skill tree for Earth Magic. He could be ignoring something that could give him a considerable boost.

  You have 8 unused Talent points.

  Talent

  Description

  Tier 1

  Earthen Will (0/5)

  Increases effectiveness of Earth Magic spells by 5%

  Solid Foundations (0/5)

  Strengthens the spell Earthen Wall and allows it to hold 15% more weight per point before becoming unstable.

  Earthen Focus (0/5)

  Decreases the resistance of Earth Magic when using a material not touching the earth by 15%

  Well, there wasn’t much thought needed behind this decision for him. One of the options seemed tailored for exactly what he was doing. He decided to drop two points in Solid Foundations and then checked to see what Tier 2 options came up for him.

  You have 6 unused Talent Points.

  Talent

  Description

  Tier 1

  Earthen Will (0/5)

  Increases effectiveness of Earth Magic spells by 5%

  Solid Foundations (2/5)

  Strengthens any walls made by Earth Magic and allows them to hold more weight before becoming unstable by 15%

  Earthen Focus (0/5)

  Decreases the resistance of Earth Magic when using a material not touching the earth by 15%

  Tier 2

  Hard as Stone (0/1)

  This ability will temporarily increase the hardness of your skin for one minute. You gain the following buffs from it:

  15% decreased damage taken by physical attacks

  15% increased strength

  Edged weapons are 40% less likely to penetrate your skin.

  Cost: 50 Mana

  Cooldown: 3 Hours

  Earth Commune (0/1)

  Enter a meditative state and become one with the Earth increasing your health and mana regen by 100%. You may enter and leave this state at any time, but once used, there is a 1 hour cooldown before it can be used again.

  (Hidden Ability)

  Transform Earth: Stone (0/1)

  This ability will only become available if you have the following prerequisites:

  Earth Magic > Level 5

  Fire Magic > Level 2

  Have learned at least one combination spell

  This will teach you the combination spell Transform Earth: Stone. This spell will turn a desired section of earth measuring one foot deep by one foot wide, by one foot tall to solid stone.

  Cost: 40 Mana

  “Fuck Yea!” Arthur exclaimed as he saw the Tier 2 options. Who would have guessed there were hidden talents that didn’t show up without specific criteria met? Allendria heard Arthur and came over to investigate.

  “What happened?” She asked.

  “I discovered a hidden talent in my Earth Magic skill tree, and it also happened to show me how an earth mage can transform the dirt into stone.” He told her with glee.

  “I didn’t even know there were hidden talents. What do you mean by a hidden talent?” Allendria asked.

  “Well, one of my second tier skills has a label stating hidden skill and the requirements you need to have for it to show.” He said.

  “Well, that would explain why not many people find it. Having a wide range of magics can be difficult to obtain, and I only know a handful of people who would have discovered combination magic. I can only guess at that because it is so tightly guarded. I cannot be sure that is what they have learned. Secrets like that tend to stay with a master once they discover it, and it isn’t uncommon for them to never teach it.” She told him.

  “That sounds like a complete waste of knowledge. Is there no repository of spell knowledge people can use to learn these things?” Arthur asked.

  “There are a handful of magical schools around, but they teach nothing but the bare basic spells in each element. None of them teach advanced spells or techniques. That is something you can only learn by apprenticing yourself to a powerful master and hoping he will be generous enough to pass down any knowledge.”

  “That seems like another thing to add to my list. I will need to set up some kind of magical school here eventually and make sure the students are taught everything we can collectively learn. If we can discover some of these secrets and get them out, it will be amazing what can be accomplished in this world.” Arthur said with resolve.

  Arthur saw a flash of what looked like admiration in Allendria’s eyes.

  “What?” He asked her as she looked at him.

  She shook her head slightly, “Nothing, you just remind me a bit of my father. He has felt the same as you do but has never been able to put the ideas into action. The people who rely on the old ways of thinking always block him when they can. That is the reason he and his brother had their original split and what caused the separate f
actions.” She said sadly.

  “Well, we can do it the right way here,” Arthur said with cheer. Allendria nodded her head at that and went silent for a bit. She appeared lost in thought, so he decided it was time to assign some points. He knew for a fact the spell to transform into stone was one of the choices he was going to take, but there were still five more points since the talent tree had been ignored since level five. He decided to take the Hard as Stone skill and also put two more points into Solid Foundations in addition to learning Transform Earth: Stone. He decided to hold on to the last 2 points for now.

  Transform Earth: Stone

  Requirements: Fire Magic and Earth Magic

  Mana Cost: 40 MP

  Cast Time: 10 seconds

  Description: Transforms a wall of earth into stone that is 1’x1’x3’.

  Mastery Level: 1

  Arthur wanted to give the spell a shot. He had managed to recover his mana again, so he decided to go back to the section closest to the wall and cast the spell three times to transform the first section of the wall foundation into stone.

  You have gained 240 experience in Earth Magic and Fire Magic for successfully casting Combination Spell: Transform Earth: Stone. (x3)

  Arthur walked around the section to admire his work. The part was now one substantial chunk of stone that was around three-feet-deep, one foot tall, and three-feet-wide. Arthur was thrilled with this piece. If he could get the wall made of stone instead, it would be infinitely better. With the ability to use stone, it should allow the chance to build a proper gatehouse with a few intelligent applications. He decided to experiment with his idea. If he knew the way to make an earthen wall and also knew the way to turn it into stone, there should be no reason he couldn’t do both things at the same time.

  He cast the Transform Earth: Stone spell one more time on the piece of foundation next to him, but this time he paid very close attention to exactly how the spell functioned. His magic allowed him to instinctively know how to do the elements of the spell, but he wanted to see the change so he could incorporate it into his new spell. The granular structure shifted as he watched the spell complete, and it gave him an idea of how to adjust his spell to match.

  You have gained 80 experience in Earth Magic and Fire Magic for successfully casting Combination Spell: Transform Earth: Stone.

  “I think I can save myself some time and speed up this whole process a bit. I am going to discover the spell to make a stone wall instead of these earthen ones.” Arthur told her.

  “I think that would be a good investment. I am sure the spell will be a bit more costly, but it will still cost less than doing the whole thing in dirt and then transforming it all into stone. You might not be able to get as far with the stone wall as you would with dirt, but it will be much sturdier.” Allendria said.

  “I’ll take that chance. I just need a few minutes to recover my mana. I want to make sure I am full mana before I attempt this new spell.” Arthur said. She nodded, and they sat on the ground and just relaxed until his mana had recovered.

  He got back to his feet and got to work. He concentrated on the first section he had turned to stone, and this time decided to increase the size he would use as a standard. He started by raising an area of dirt on top of the existing section of stone. He wasn’t quite sure how that worked, but he wasn’t going to question it.

  He stretched his base size of this and kept moving it to be broader. His eyes continuously scanned his mana amount. He didn’t want to use more than a third of it for the dirt work because he knew the transformation took a bit more mana. When he started nearing his mana threshold, he smoothed the edges of his work and cut in the corners.

  He had managed to make a section of dirt that was two-feet-deep, two-feet-high, and eight-feet-long. This was drastically better, and before he let go of the spell, he started weaving fire magic into it and forcing the change he knew it needed. Starting at the bottom, the dirt began to slowly change to stone, and the magic kept moving upward and out further from the corner he started on. As the transformation crawled up the rock, Arthur got distracted by watching Allendria. Before he could fix the error, his mana dropped out, and the spell failed.

  Arthur brought in a big breath and let out a heavy sigh.

  “I got distracted and failed the spell.” He told Allendria dejectedly.

  “Do you think you had enough mana to complete it otherwise? If so, we can just wait a bit longer, and you can complete it.” She told him with a smile.

  “I am sure I could have done it. Just need to focus better.”

  “Let’s just give it some time, and you can try again,” she told him in a soothing tone.

  They waited for about twenty minutes, and he attempted it again in the same manner. This time he maintained his focus and received a welcome notification.

  Congratulations, you have discovered the Combination Spell: Raise Stone Wall. You have gained 250 experience in Earth Magic and Fire Magic for discovering a known spell.

  You have gained 90 experience in Earth Magic and Fire Magic for successfully casting Combination Spell: Raise Stone Wall.

  Raise Stone Wall

  Requirements: Fire Magic and Earth Magic

  Mana Cost: 50 MP

  Cast Time: 10 seconds

  Description: Creates a 2’ x 2’ x 8’ wall of stone from the ground.

  Mastery Level: 1

  These combination spells were going to be an excellent way for him to level two skills at once. This was also going to save him some time and effort. Being able to spend 50 mana to get all of the work done at once would be a great advantage. It took him 120 mana just to cast the spells to raise an earthen wall, and that was only six feet long instead of the new eight-foot he just unlocked.

  This spell was invaluable since it would also cost an additional 240 mana to transform that small section to stone. Arthur was immensely thankful that Allendria had told him that the base size of a spell is equal to the extent you discovered the magic. His much larger mana pool and higher intellect also helped him achieve this larger base size.

  “Well, we are in business.” He told Allendria.

  “That was pretty impressive.” She told him. “I was watching the whole thing, so I knew you had discovered it. Hopefully, the mana cost of this new spell is much more cost-effective than your old way of doing things.”

  “Infinitely so. I can only cast around seven of these before I am out of mana, but that will span sixty-three feet of length and be a bit over two-foot-tall and two-foot-deep when you add in my bonuses. I also plan on making a gatehouse here. I am going to do it first. I want to see how this new skill works. I think the stone melding will work overhead as long as I focus on keeping the dirt in place until it transforms. The trick will be spanning the distance.

  Arthur walked back to where the road was. He went to the side he had already been working with stone on and figured he could get started here. Discovering this new spell could be cast directly over areas that already had an Earthen Wall present enabled him to save time converting the old sections. He decided he was going to have to make the wall deeper as well. Three-feet was a bare minimum for an Earthen Wall and quite honestly would only barely deter someone from entering.

  Now that he could do stone, he decided he needed the wall to be a minimum of four feet deep. He could always add to it later. He cast one more spell on the base to add a one-foot section to stretch it to four feet wide. It also lifted it to two-feet-high. He then cast the same spell on the other side to give him an even chunk of stone that was four-feet-deep, two-feet-tall, and nine-feet-long.

  He then cast the spell four more times to keep the wall four-feet-deep and eight-feet-wide, but it also raised it to six-feet-high.

  It was now time for him to regenerate his mana once again. He walked around with Allendria, and they discussed the need for the gatehouse. Arthur wanted it to be at least ten feet high for the entryway, which meant he would have to raise the walls to twelve feet so he could have a
t least a two-foot thick top on the doorway.

  He supposed he could leave the top open, but why bother? They chatted away the time, and Arthur walked back to his current section. He cast the spell six more times and watched the wall shift from six-feet-tall to a towering twelve-feet-tall.

  He was happy with this part of the wall and decided that it was time to start working on the other side of the road. They had to kill more time until he regained his mana and then went back to the wall. He did the same thing as last time and cast the spell six times to get it halfway done, and then he waited for the regen and cast another six times.

  You have gained 2160 experience in Earth Magic and Fire Magic for successfully casting Combination Spell: Raise Stone Wall (x24).

  Congratulations, you have reached level 4 in Fire Magic. Fire Magic spells now have a 9% increased effect. Don’t catch yourself on Fire.