by Dakota Krout
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Joe informed her firmly. Her valley-girl way of speech was grating on his nerves, and he wanted her to either get to the point or go away.
“Wow, you are so lucky I came along to this guild!” Terra flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled happily. “Let’s get you learned! You have a mana pool and mana channels. If you use a spell without directing the power through the channels–sure it is faster–but you get tired and sore really fast, right?”
A few of her words resonated with Joe. “So if I had a huge mana pool and used all of it at once…?”
“You’d probably hurl or pass out. Maybe bleed all over the place or something.” Terra smirked at him smugly. “Guess what, though? I can teach you how to fix yourself! I am a licensed mage, after all!”
“You need a license?” Joe nearly choked on his coffee as he took a long drink.
“Right? Whatevs though, let’s get started!” Terra grabbed both his hands and leaned toward him. Joe’s face turned crimson as a few people in the room whistled at them. “Okay, where is your pool of mana?”
Not understanding what she was asking, Joe pointed at the interface in the corner of his vision that showed a full mana bar. She shook her head violently and laughed. “That’s your mana bar, silly! You need to meditate and go ‘into’ yourself to find your center. I’ll show you.”
Terra used skill ‘guided meditation’ on you! Accept? Yes / No
Joe accepted eagerly. His breathing slowed and his mind cleared of distractions. He felt a warm light in his mind, and he followed it deeper inside of himself. He followed the light through dark, twisting tunnels until finally, a kaleidoscope of brilliance formed in the distance. Turning the final corner, Joe found himself staring into a tiny, twisting hurricane of blue and black light.
“Woah,” Terra’s voice echoed into his mind. “You have a buttload of mana.”
“Is this a lot?” Joe smiled as he watched the powerful clouds of energy. “I get a boost to my mana pool from being a cleric.”
“I should see if I can switch! I could cast so many spells…” Terra stated wistfully. “You need to condense this stuff and start it moving through your spell channels. Think about it shrinking, condensing, and then will it to happen. Make it an orb that spins, and use as much force as you can.”
She hadn’t led him wrong yet, so Joe stared at the mana and tried to make it pack together. He felt his mind reach into the storm, and the edges of the turbulent energy began to smooth. Excited, he pushed harder. The storm started to take on a spherical shape, expanding at the bottom and shrinking at the sides. It compressed smaller and smaller, also becoming much brighter as the mana was forced together. When it was nearly half the original size, Joe found that it wouldn’t go any further. He stared at it angrily, pushing and shouting with his mind until a nasty headache bloomed.
Skill gained: Coalescence (Novice I). You have taken the first steps on the path of the mind! By collecting your mana in an orderly form, you will be able to pack more mana into a single usage, with far greater effect. +1% spell efficiency and +1% mana regeneration per skill level. Wisdom +1. Increase your wisdom to coalesce your mana to a higher degree. (Maximum 50% spell efficiency.)
“Awesome!” Joe exclaimed when he finished reading the description. “What does spell efficiency do?”
“It makes your spells cost less mana.” Terra was staring at the contained storm clouds. “What kind of ridiculous wisdom score do you have?”
“Oh, ha, yeah,” Joe nervously babbled. “Uh, it’s a cleric thing. Healing someone is based off of your wisdom… or something like that.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Terra nodded knowingly. “Okay, step number two! This one is usually harder because people don't have enough mana, but somehow I think you will get along just fine. Grasp some mana, keep it attached to your mana pool like a string, and start pulling it along these tunnels. Just walk and pull. The more mana you are able to bring along on the first pass, the better your bonus will be at the end.”
“Alright.” Joe tried to grab some of the cloud, but it was… well… a cloud. Rolling his eyes, he tried to pull it along with his mind. Nothing happened at first, but after focusing harder, he was able to force a tendril of mana to slither out of the orb. Grunting in what he was sure was a charming manner, Joe slowly coaxed as much of the energy along as possible. As he got the hang of controlling the thread of power, he started walking along the twisting tunnels with his mind. The thread followed Joe, and Joe followed Terra. He was very lucky that she knew where to go, else he would have been lost a dozen times over. Looking back, a trail of light followed Joe as far as he could see. He turned another corner, and his mana pool was back in sight.
“Are we… lost?” Joe asked Terra a bit reproachfully.
“Where did you think we were going?” Her voice was confused. “Now just reconnect the mana to the pool, and you’re done!”
“Oh. Sorry about that, I thought we were… actually, I had no idea what to expect.” Joe stepped forward and directed the energy back into the pool. As it connected, mana began to pulse along the line, and another message appeared in his view.
Skill gained: Mana manipulation (Novice I). Where others are content to throw unseemly amounts of power into a spell–swiftly fueling their own destruction–you use a lighter touch. -30% mana. +1% mana and +1% spell efficiency per skill level. (Maximum 25% efficiency). Intelligence +1.
Joe’s face moved from confusion, to shock, to outrage. He sputtered, “T-thirty percent mana pool loss?” He opened his status, and–sure enough–his mana had dropped from what should have been five hundred seventy-five mana… all the way down to four hundred and two point five. His shock brought him out of his meditation session, and Terra responded nonchalantly.
“Yeah, thirty percent loss. It’s rough, but you start increasing your mana pool at the student rank, and if you make it to Sage you can get up to, like, a seventy percent mana boost.” It appeared that she couldn’t read his thunderstruck expression very well. He. Was. Not. Amused.
“That’s obviously why it is such an issue for mages at the beginning, but it is so worth it in the end! You rank up the skills by getting your mana pool down to zero over and over. For coalescence you focus on shrinking the mana pool as it refills, keeping it as small as possible the whole time. Helps boost wisdom over time, too. For mana manipulation, you work your power to use that open channel while you cast. You gotta kinda… um, make it stay on that path? Try it; it’s way easier to understand it that way.”
Joe wanted to be upset, but he swallowed his frustration and cast a ranged heal on a random passerby. Casting using the mana channel was a strange feeling, but he also instantly felt the difference. Instead of only seeing the effect after casting, he could now feel the power flow along his body. It was similar to grabbing a live wire, a kind of… tightening that forced his body to respond. A ball of water splashed on the lady passing. She sputtered as water dripped down her face, then glared and gave him a rude gesture. Whoops. That was the server. Joe suddenly felt the need to leave a really good tip.
“The more mana that passes along the channel, the wider it’ll grow. At its max size, it’ll bump open a new one. When you have all seven open, you are a Sage ranked mana manipulator!” Terra seemed to have stars in her eyes. Actually, with the burning ambition he could see, Joe thought that a forest fire was a more accurate representation.
“Seriously, I know I’m grumpy, but thank you for teaching me these skills.” Joe nodded at her and pushed his cold coffee away. “Is there anything I can do to repay the favor?”
“Well, learning that skillset without guided meditation costs nearly a thousand gold from the mage’s college.” Terra’s words nearly made Joe’s eyes pop out of his skull. Ten thousand dollars for those skills? “Luckily, the guild paid the fee for me. So now all I need to do to earn my officer’s cut is train our members and participate in raids. Teaching you paid off ten percent o
f my debt to Aten, but if you want to thank me more personally, feel free to heal me whenever I need it and resurrect me if you ever learn how. Otherwise I do accept cash. I’m thinking of making, like, a tip jar?”
“Um. Sure thing. Thank you again, this will be really helpful. Eventually.” Joe received a wink in reply, and Terra flounced off to do… whatever it was she did. Joe looked at his mana again, a bit forlornly. He was now under the minimum required mana for most rituals that he had seen. Only the very basic ones were available to him at this point. Joe wanted to dump points into the mana manipulation skill, but stopped himself before he did something he was sure he’d regret. He needed to save those points, but he also needed to have enough mana to use rituals, and he... Joe barely stopped himself from screaming. Everything needed skill points!
Joe tried to calm down. Think good thoughts now. Inhale. Exhale. He could level these skills up quickly, he was certain of it. Mana manipulation was based off of how much mana you used correctly? Mwahaha. Well, he could empty out his entire not-quite-as-massive mana pool easily with a single ritual. He paged through the ritual book, marking down which rituals were available to him at this time. ‘Little sister’s cleaning service’ would just about clean him out, which was perfect for leveling his skills… but he had no real need for the effects.
‘Predator’s territory’ cost about four hundred and fifty mana, a bit less with his skill increase. Too expensive to use right now. He was rather glad that he had set one up around the guild area before he learned these… useful… skills. The only other rituals he could complete right now were nasty debuffs that lasted through death. Leaden footsteps and overburdened back. Leaden footsteps was interesting; it would increase a person's weight fivefold whenever they weren’t in contact with the ground. This would make swimming, jumping, or flying nearly impossible.
Overburdened back would make any single item not equipped weigh the maximum amount the targeted person could carry. Joe could see some utility with this one beyond being a curse. If this was used when someone was carrying something massive, it would actually reduce its weight to something manageable. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a time where anyone would only want to carry one item with them. Maybe a competition of some kind?
Both of them cost seven hundred mana, but his class would make them usable for him by halving their requirements. Unfortunately he was out of Cores for his rituals, so it was currently a moot point. Not only that, but creating the rituals just to create them would be incredibly wasteful. Sighing in frustration, he decided that he would grind up his new skills today by joining Tiona and using as many spells as possible.
Looking at the time, he found it was already eight in the morning! Joe cussed softly and made for the city gate. In his rush out of the building, he tripped on a crate. He was in pain, and his mind was making rhymes! Snarling, he debated healing his stubbed toe, but in his hurry, he decided against it. Sprinting, he arrived at the gate. Turning his head, he puked as his stamina hit rock bottom and the physical side effects hit him. Collapsing to his knees as he looked around for his group, Joe hoped that he wasn’t too late. As it happened, they were just walking up and looking at him with great concern. …Dang it. He explained his morning between gasps and about how he lost track of time. All he got in response to his tale were a few laughs at his terrible stamina.
They set out at a much more moderate pace, their mission once again to hunt Wolfmen. The rabbits ran away as Tiona approached, her high level causing a fear status in the weak creatures. She laughed at that; apparently level nine was the threshold for rabbits to become terrified. Foxes would still attack them if they got too close, but staying on the now well-traveled paths allowed for very few encounters. There was a small side effect from being on high alert and not being attacked; when they reached the wolves, the entire group was antsy and spoiling for a fight. In their rush to burn off some nervous energy, they decided to attack any wolves they saw along their path.
Chad pointed out a small pack drinking from a shallow pond, and everyone moved into position. He fired an arrow, which lodged deep into his target’s flank, eliciting a howl and a response from the others. Joe’s eyes narrowed as he saw the wounded wolf moving toward them at a much slower pace than normal. This was his chance to try his first attack spell!
Focusing on his mana, Joe directed it to his hands through the newly opened channel… and cast shadow spike! It felt a bit strange to see the spell impact the wolf because there was no indication that the spell had come from Joe. The wolf was staggering toward them and never even noticed its own shadow bunching up and spearing him from below. The shadow returned to its normal form, and the wolf’s entrails poured through the gaping hole. Joe was almost ecstatic about how effective the spell had been, but a touch of sleepiness made his mind a bit fuzzy from the spell cost. Since it was a mage spell–and he was playing as a ‘cleric’–the spell cost fifty mana for being a non-class ability. Well, technically the spell cost forty-nine point five mana because of the one percent spell efficiency from his new skills.
Still, it took an eighth of his total mana to cast that spell a single time. Before condensing and directing his mana, using that much power at once had caused a serious wave of fatigue. Thinking it through, he found that he had no real complaints. The spell was spectacularly effective, and even the huge mana cost would be good for increasing his manipulation skill. A touch of sleepiness? That was manageable. Joe was torn out of his self-analysis by a scream of pain almost directly in his ear. Tiona’s wrist had been caught by the pack alpha, rendering her sword useless as the canine shook her brutally. Her sword clattered against a rock as she dropped it, and the wolf was able to throw her body to the ground.
The snarling beast lunged at her neck, and Joe saw that there was no one near enough to help her. He made the gesture needed to cast shadow spike and felt his mental energy drain once again. Joe’s hands hadn’t been very accurate with the rushed motions, so even though the spell fired off properly, it drained almost fifty percent more mana and seemed far weaker than it should have been. He shook his head to clear out the sudden cobwebs, watching the results of his action.
The shadow had lurched up from underneath the animal, impaling him as he leapt for Tiona. He landed on her and the flat base of the short lived cone-shaped spike used the impact of their bodies to drive deeper into the chest of the meaty creature. It thrashed for a moment but fell still as it bled out. Tiona needed to wait for rescue as the horse-sized body started to crush her; her wrist was obviously damaged–possibly broken–and she was in great pain. When the last of the animals fell–a far easier task without the alpha guiding them–Dylan was able to push the creature over without it further injuring the already wounded woman.
Joe hadn’t been idle; he had begun healing his party leader as soon as he could get access to her. The heavy body had been inflicting minor crushing damage every second, but the amount of health being taken was fairly small. He was confused; for some reason, he wasn’t able to bring Tiona past three-quarter health. When the wolf was off of her, he found that the bones in her wrist hadn’t been able to set. He pulled her hand into the correct configuration and healed her again; this time her health reached full. Oh, thank goodness; it was just a major sprain, puncture wounds, and dislocation. Her constitution and strength must be massive!
“Thanks for the healing.” Tiona was rubbing her hand and took a moment to wipe away the sweat and tears threatening her vision.
“I’m glad to do it. For some reason, I wasn’t able to set your bones with magic.” Joe was searching his memory for any time he had healed a bone, but he realized that he hadn’t needed to fix any of them. Mainly because magical healing was a rarity so people were fairly good at setting bones and performing first aid. Their bones healed pretty fast in this magical world, and he now realized that he had only ever fixed various flesh wounds. In fact, the only time that he had healed serious organ damage or broken bones was when he had fallen off a cliff
and splattered all over the stone below. Was he able to heal himself to a greater degree than he was able to heal others?
“Not surprising. You’ll get there.” Tiona was standing, and it was obvious to Joe that the trauma of the fight was already vanishing from her memory. He shuddered a bit at the intrusion into their minds. “What is surprising is how the wolf died. Did you cast an attack spell?”
Joe choked on his words as he began to wave her question away but realized that hiding his ability was foolish. This was his team, and he needed to trust them. Hiding his ritualist class was needed so that he retained all the experience bonuses, but this? “I did! I got access to it when we got that title for staying outside overnight. My deity is one of at least water and darkness, and maybe I’ll be able to learn more spells as time goes on. This spell is called ‘shadow spike’, and I got it as a bonus reward on top of the title.”
“Awesome! Now we have two ranged damage dealers so we can take on tougher enemies. How much damage does the spell do?” Chad put out a hand for a high-five.
Joe slapped the outstretched palm and winced as the disparity in strength between the two caused his hand to throb. “Right now, only ten points of damage. It does ten points per skill level, but the cost doubles with each level as well. Takes about two seconds to cast correctly, but if I dump extra mana into it, it seems that I can cast an inferior version faster.”
“Oh? How many times can you cast it in a row right now?” Tiona’s eyes gleamed as she planned out their next fights.
“Only eight correctly cast versions before I am totally out of mana,” Joe stated almost sadly, though no one else understood why. They thought that was perfectly reasonable for such a powerful spell.
Tiona did some quick math in her head. “Alright. Healing is pretty cheap for you though, right? That makes perfect sense, using non-class related skills costs more stamina for us, why wouldn’t it cost you more mana for spells? In that case, during battle I only want you to use the spell a maximum of five times. That way you will have enough in reserve to heal us if we get put into a tight spot, but you’ll still be able to contribute to the fight more directly. Also, that spell seems really hard to avoid. I didn’t even see it cross the distance between you and your target.”
