Growth Hero 2

by Brent Tyman

  I wondered if any of the Hogannan students would dare complain if they saw it was Clarissa making that racket.

  “This Clan member locator is so useful,” Clarissa said as she sat down in front of me, crossing one leg over the other on the golden tabletop itself. “How did the meeting with the Sovereign go? Probably not that well if I didn’t get notification of Juliana’s acceptance into the Clan, right handsome?”

  I wanted to answer, but I was distracted by the sight of Clarissa’s smooth legs. Gods above was she beautiful. And she knew exactly what to do to make my jaw drop at times…

  “Ahh, are you okay Alex?” Anny asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

  I snapped out of it with a shake of my head, drawing a smirk from Clarissa and an eyeroll from Juliana.

  “Yeah, yeah, everything is great,” I said.

  “My father and I have come to an arrangement,” Juliana said. “And must you really sit like that, here?”

  “How else am I going to be close to my man? Plus, the chairs here are dreadful,” Clarissa said. “What agreement have you come to with that father of yours?”

  “He wishes for us to enter the tournament and win it for the Sovereignty. If we do this, he said I can do whatever I wish. Only then may I join Alex’s Clan,” Juliana said.

  “Please correct me if I am wrong, but would that not be troublesome for Clarissa, as her own father wishes Hoganna to be victorious,” Aurielle inquired.

  Clarissa clapped her hands, rather loudly, once again drawing angry stares our way. It wouldn’t be long before a librarian came by to kick us out of here.

  “This is perfect! I can fight for my handsome Alex and foil my father’s plans at the same time. Yes, I love it! Let’s proceed with this lovely plan.”

  “Uhh,” Anny said, “I’m not sure my family would like me fighting for the Tasberg Sovereignty…”

  “Anny, your family is back in Hoganna. Why should they care what happens in little ol’ Tringall?” Clarissa said.

  “I suppose...” Anny said, but Clarissa reached out to pat the woman on the shoulder.

  “Trust me. Once I take over from my father, they will be very happy to hear that you are in the same powerful Clan as me.”

  “I just got some spells to kick start my magic development,” I said, tapping both covers of the used spell books. “We were planning to head to the Dungeon and give them a whirl. Seems like I could use every advantage in this tournament I can get.”

  “None of the students here could hold a candle to you, handsome,” Clarissa said, waving a hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the nations hire renowned adventurers to fight for them.”

  “They can do that?” I asked.

  “Of course. I’m sure my father will fish out some old veterans for this tournament,” Clarissa replied sagely.

  Contending with adventurers who had presumably spent most of their life Dungeon diving and grinding didn’t bode well. Who knew what kind of stats they had accumulated?

  I found it interesting that Juliana thought we would have the most trouble with the other Academy students and Clarissa was warning me about veteran adventurers, instead. I supposed we’d have to wait and see how the tournament went.

  “Will you join us for the tournament, Aurielle?” I asked the woman. She had just joined the Clan, so I wanted to make sure she was good with helping us out in the tournament.

  “Of course,” she replied with a smile. “I’m sure my skills will be useful, and this will be a good way to start repaying my debt.”

  I really wanted to remind her that she didn’t owe me anything, but knowing her, she probably wouldn’t accept it and insist that she did.

  “Alright, perfect. This makes up the five that we need for a tournament group. Wanna head over to the Dungeon for some grinding?” I asked my party.

  Clarissa leaned over and positioned herself, so her cleavage was right in front of my eyes.

  “Ooh! You know I’m always up to do some grinding, handsome…”

  “Clarissa! This is the library!” Juliana shouted before covering her mouth in shock.

  I shook my head with a small grin at Clarissa’s antics, but noticed one of the librarians had started heading our way. It wasn’t the same one I had bought my spell books from, though. This place was big enough to warrant several of them.

  “It seems we may not be welcome here,” Aurielle said.

  “Ahh, what do we do?” Anny moaned, looking ready to bolt.

  “Let’s get going,” I said, getting up from the golden chair.

  We headed out of the library before the librarian could get to us. Juliana and Clarissa each took hold of one of my arms—though Juliana only did so after Clarissa had. With these women at my side, I honestly thought we could face just about any challenge.

  We had to win this tournament. And to do that, we needed to grind.

  I only hoped training these magic stats of mine wasn’t too painful and prayed I could get them up to overpowered heights fairly soon.

  Given the competition I could be facing, I’d need all the power I could muster…

  And then some.

  17

  Just before we entered the Dungeon, I sent a mental command to change the stat I was currently boosting. The confirmation screen appeared right afterwards, in its typical blue window.

  Skills

  Growth - Increased growth for a selected stat.

  Currently boosting: Magical Power

  Cooldown - 5 Days

  The cooldown hadn’t impacted me much, thus far. Though from what the women told me, I knew that at some point I’d need to switch to boosting my Magical Capacity. The method for boosting either stat was fairly similar in practice.

  Magical Power gained experience by using spells to dispatch monsters and worked just how I expected it to. For all of the women except for Juliana, since she wasn’t in the Clan, if they defeated a monster, I would get full experience as well. If Juliana defeated anything, since she was just in our party, I’d only get half-credit for the experience gained.

  Magical Capacity was a tad different. Instead of dispatching monsters, all I had to do was keep using my spells. Juliana had mentioned this to me before, when I’d asked her about it, but it was really that simple.

  Technically, Magical Power would grow from just using spells as well, but after a little bit of digging from more information, it turned out that dispatching monsters with attack magic was the best way to go.

  That’s why it took such a long time for healers to level their Magical Power. Clarissa admitted that she’d had extensive training from her tutors, to get it to the level it was today. If everyone knew that Aurielle had a skill that just gave her one hundred Magical Power and Capacity for free, they’d probably call it a cheat.

  “Here we are, Alex,” Juliana said. “If I remember your methods for these Rats, we are currently outside their… aggro range, correct?”

  “Haha,” I laughed. “That’s right! Glad you remembered.”

  “As an heir, it’s prudent that I do all I can to improve my knowledge of these things,” Juliana said, almost a bit too formally, but she smiled all the same.

  “Will Alex try his magic now?” Anny asked.

  “I believe so. Do you recall how to activate the magic, Alex?” Aurielle asked.

  The women had given me extremely thorough instructions on the use of my magic on the way here. In fact, Juliana, Clarissa and Aurielle had all tried to talk over each other in an effort to be the one who relayed the information to me.

  Juliana and Clarissa had even disagreed on a few things and, at one point, had almost gotten into an argument. Thankfully, I had managed to nip that in the bud by complimenting one beauty’s observation and distracting the other with a well-timed kiss.

  They really were quite motivated to help me out…

  The simple stone walls of the Dungeon’s first level had an air of familiarity to it, and I quite liked grinding here. There were no envir
onmental issues to worry about—with it being either too hot or too cold—or anything, really.

  The first level just presented a simple cavernous interior that I would probably find quite easily back home, if I’d had the time and inclination to travel. Most of my free time had naturally been set aside for my RPG’s.

  Now, though, it was time for some magic.

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll try the Blast Currents spell first,” I said.

  “Remember not to overexert yourself,” Juliana warned, waving a finger in front of her. “Your limited Magical Capacity will strain your muscles; you could very easily succumb to Magical Poisoning.”

  “Haha,” I laughed. “Thanks for the reminder, but you have told me that at least three times on the way here.”

  “Oh,” Juliana said, blushing. “I just wanted to make sure you knew the danger.”

  “Alright, here we go,” I said.

  Although I didn’t need to thrust my hand out, as magic could be expelled from any part of the body, it was common practice to use one’s hands to help visualize where you wanted the magic to go. Besides, it just felt right.

  I raised my arm slowly and mentally commanded the Blast Currents spell to activate.

  A sudden urge to vomit welled up from my core and I almost heaved out all of that tasty Tarskabeast I had enjoyed this morning. My arm faltered for a moment as my body shook, a chill seeping into my bones as a massive blast of air shot out of my hand.

  The air warped into itself, almost like how Anny blurred when she used her impressive Speed. A line of this powerful burst of wind whipped out in front of me and made it about a quarter of the way towards the Rats before it snapped back as if it had hit a brick wall and winked out of existence.

  The small, blurred trail that had followed it disappeared a moment later.

  “Jeez,” I said as I wobbled in place. “I feel like I’ve been shaken up and down and every which way but loose.”

  Juliana and Clarissa quickly grabbed my arms to steady me. I smiled at them before pinching my eyes closed and leaning over, once again feeling the urge to heave again.

  “You did well, Alex,” Juliana said. “And… ahh, this is just the result of your low Magical Capacity.”

  “If this... Uhh…” I groaned, then shook my head in an attempt to clear it. That was a terrible mistake! It only made things worse.

  “If this is how it feels like, then I probably should have boosted my Magical Capacity for five days before switching to my Growth skill.”

  “Don’t worry so much, handsome,” Clarissa said. “This is how it is for everyone when they cast their first spells. I suppose you got a taste from using that healing spell, right? This is what it feels like when you sap enough Magic Capacity not to fall into Magical Poisoning while still staying upright.”

  “I… I suppose that’s a good thing. Right?” I weakly gasped out, hanging my still spinning head over my knees.

  Was this how those Yunissan earth mages had felt when they vomited all over themselves when we’d come across them in the Dungeon?

  Lying down honestly felt like a really good idea at this point.

  “As far as the spell itself goes, the range was surprisingly short,” I said, trying to point without falling over. “Even if I’d been in aggro range, I would need to be really close to hit something with it hard enough to do any damage.”

  “That is due to your limited Magical Power,” Aurielle said. “The Seers taught that as ones Magical Power increases, the range and potency of their spells will increase, too.”

  “Even so,” I said as I gradually felt a tiny bit better. “This kind of makes it difficult to fight a whole group of monsters at once. I’d be ready to fall over after only attacking one enemy.”

  The women looked at each other as they considered this.

  “Welcome to the wonderful world of magic, handsome,” Clarissa grinned. “It took me years to get my Magical stats to the point where I wasn’t reliant on others for help while I recovered. I burned through so many tutors who tried to bore me with their magical theory…”

  “I admit,” Juliana said, “I hardly remember what it was like doing magic at the lower end for either my Magical Power or my Magical Capacity, but yes, I remember that it took many tutors and several years to increase either of them up to an acceptable level.”

  Oh yeah, both women had been born with all their stats at five, thanks to that Royal Born skill. And Aurielle had her Chosen skill which gave her that amazing boost. Heck, I bet even Anny had taken advantage of some tutoring to get her Magical stats up a bit.

  Now that I thought about it...

  “Anny, how did you get your Magical Power up? It was at thirty-five last I checked, back in Valdura right?”

  “A little higher now,” Anny admitted. “And my mother taught me a little and arranged for some tutors to increase my Magical Power, in case it affected my pathfinding skill. My father unfortunately stopped such training when he decided the cost was too high. That’s when I started focusing on my Speed training, instead.”

  It had been tutors for her too? Huh…

  “Alright, so it looks like I’ll just have to figure out how to be effective with the limited magic I have,” I said.

  “Handsome, why not just stand there, cast your spell as often as you can and let the Rats bite you,” Clarissa suggested, smirking. “Your Defense is so high that they can’t possibly hurt you to be a real threat—well, not much of a threat.”

  The prospect of heaving my stomach contents onto the Rats over and over as I let them bite my shins while waiting for my Capacity to refill did not appeal in the slightest.

  The women discussed some other options while they waited for me to recover. The Rats had completely ignored my attack, either because it hadn’t entered their aggro range or maybe because the spell was too weak for it to even register as an attack. I mean, it had looked pretty powerful, and certainly felt powerful from my perspective, but the range was truly pitiful.

  One idea the women had tossed around was for Juliana and Aurielle to take the lead for today’s grinding. I would get half the experience from Juliana’s efforts and full credit for Aurielle’s.

  While it was certainly an option, I had just spent forty gold coins on this magic and really wanted to use it. Learning to use my magic was more important than simply waiting for the experience I would get from the rest of the party’s efforts.

  “Right, I feel better. Let’s try the other one,” I said.

  I supposed that before making a decision about how to grind today, I might as well explore all of the tools I had at my disposal.

  Juliana and Clarissa reluctantly let go of my arms but still hovered beside me, just in case I faltered. I grinned at the feeling behind the gesture and tried not to get lost in their beauty as I cast my other spell.

  I envisioned an Icy Cloud forming in my mind and soon enough, that feeling of dizziness returned. At least this time, it didn’t feel like my stomach was trying to turn itself inside out. I didn’t think I’d even need something, or someone, to keep me from falling over. That was an improvement, I guess.

  As the name of the spell implied, a nearly transparent blue cloud appeared in front of me, floating at about the height of my shoulders.

  Tiny ice crystals slowly swirled within its confines and despite it being some kind of attack spell, watching it was almost mesmerizing.

  “That’s so pretty,” Anny breathed, her big, dark eyes glittering as she stared at the swirling crystals.

  “Indeed,” Aurielle replied. “I have never seen such a spell before.”

  “Hmm, it will be difficult to use it against the Rats,” Juliana noted. “It’s too far above the ground.”

  Crap! She was right.

  Unless I somehow coaxed the Rats into jumping a few feet into the air, there was no way they’d come close enough to my Icy Cloud. Truth to tell, this spell probably wasn’t that well suited to fighting them. They preferred chewing on my ankles over anyt
hing else, after all.

  For some reason, I wanted to touch the cloud and slowly stuck my hand into it. I wasn’t worried, since the sticker on the spell book had said it would be harmless to both me and my party, but I did recoil quickly when I felt a sharp chill wash over my armor.

  Surely the person who wrote that sticker wouldn’t lie about something important like that?

  We all watched in fascination as a swarm of tiny ice crystals enveloped my arm, latching onto the rather expensive armor. Small tendrils of ice slowly fanned out to the side, eventually becoming tiny spikes that jutted out in all directions.

  When I pulled my arm back, more ice crystals rushed in to fill the void I’d left behind and I stared in wonder at my arm. It seemed like I’d grown myself a set of ice armor over my actual armor. I thought it looked pretty cool.

  “Looking a tad chilly there, handsome,” Clarissa said as she reached out to rub a thumb along the length of one of the icy spikes. “Interesting. This spike is actually quite sharp.”

  “Perhaps it is intended to be used as more of a defensive buff?” Aurielle suggested. “One of my peers used to perform that role. He would shower the party with magic that would increase our Ethereal magic’s potency during our fights.”

  “I dunno,” I said. “I wouldn’t really want to have this stuff covering places like my face…”

  “Was this spell not meant to latch onto a foe that came within its range, Alex?” Juliana wondered.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I wonder how that works. These ice spikes seem pretty solid, so maybe they end up poking into any monsters that get near them or something.”

  An idea popped into my head suddenly, and I looked around me on the ground and picked up a few rocks. This spell wasn’t as debilitating as using the Blast Currents spell had been. I had already recovered.

  I threw a small pebble into the cloud and watched as ice crystals enveloped its surface. As the pebble arced towards the ground, it was covered in spikes that hit the floor with a hollow thud.