You do not meet the requirements to cast this spell!
Required: Mana Seed of Fire.
Well, that pretty much solved that. At least I hadn’t been kidnapped. Hello, floating letters, I thought hazily.
It took an uncomfortably long time for the darkness to peel back from the edges of my vision, but as it did, other heads-up elements appeared. A red bar graced the top-left corner of my vision, followed by an empty bar flashing red, and a full green bar. As I focused, numbers appeared. 10/10. 0/10. 10/10. My status bars, Hit Points, Mana Points, and Stamina Points—HP, MP, and SP—were standard, and my mana bar was empty. As my head cleared, a sliver of blue appeared in the middle bar, and the flashing stopped. I had gained 1 point of mana back, and my mental faculties were recovering in step. I’d need to be more careful if I wanted to be casting spells. If overdrawing my mana incapacitated me, repeating the mistake could doom me in a fight.
Okay, so I need to pull up a character sheet, I thought. As if summoned by the thought, there it was. The opaque window materialized in the direct center of my field of view, though this user interface didn’t track with my eyes as the notification text had. Instead, it responded to my focus, repositioning as smoothly as if it were a piece of paper held in my hand.
I sized myself up.
Zenzuck (Human Inept) — Level 1
Hit Points: 10/10
Mana Points: 2/10
Stamina Points: 10/10
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Intellect: 1
Wisdom: 1
Charisma: 1
XP to Next Level: 40
I was a blank slate. One point in each basic stat? I was barely alive! No wonder my mana had taken such a hit. And shouldn’t I have been able to assign additional Attribute Points? Or choose my starting class? Or my race? Or even my name? What kind of auto-generated garbage was Zenzuck?! Had I done something wrong?
Or was this a tutorial area—some type of loading-screen analog before character creation commenced? I looked around expectantly, but nothing particularly exciting seemed ready to happen. The long grass whispered in the cool breeze.
Well, waiting patiently certainly wasn’t in the cards. It was time to dive in and see what I was working with.
At a thought, the stats revealed further information.
Intellect
Your ability to understand the world. Learn faster. Be smarter.
+10 Mana Points (+10 to Mana Capacity/point)
+1% to Spell Damage (+1% spell damage/point)
+.01% to Experience Point gain (+.01% exp/point)
Wisdom
Your ability to apply knowledge and resist external influence.
+1 to Mana Regeneration (+1 MP per minute/point)
+.1% to all Resistances (+.1% resistance to all/point)
I wasn’t worried about the other stats just then. I was planning on playing as a spellcaster, and the other stats seemed in line with other RPGs I’d played: Strength would affect attack damage during hand-to-hand combat; Dexterity would affect accuracy, action speed, and potentially critical strike chance; Constitution would provide additional Hit Points; Charisma would be worthless.
After my basic stats, my priority was discovering what spells I could cast. If I was to go charging out into this brave new world, I’d need to have some idea how I would handle myself in battles. Mages who rush into battle without planning ahead don’t generally fare well, since higher Intellect and Wisdom inevitably means less Defense and fewer Hit Points.
Even if this was simply a waiting area, I wasn’t going to wait until someone here told me I could start casting.
Darkness fell around me again, but this time it was an external phenomenon. The world simply darkened, and then disappeared within the space of a breath. Disembodied, I watched as the stars glinted into view above me, still for just a moment before snapping away from their homes and swarming through the black like fireflies.
Having the entire world around me participate in accessing a UI—user interface—was not something I was prepared to handle without batting an eye, and for a long moment I simply stared up at the sky in wonder, vaguely reaching for the memory of what I had been doing.
Oh, right. Spells. In one fluid movement, but with no sense of acceleration, I screamed up toward the stars, an untethered consciousness in the night sky on a light-years-long trip that lasted only seconds. The object of my attention was a particular red pinprick that blossomed from a sparkle into an entire sun as I streaked toward it. Before long I was hovering before a bright sphere of red flame. Text floated into view in front of it.
Flame Jet I
Cost: 160 MP per second
Range: 5 meters
Cast Time: 3 seconds
Duration: Channeled
Description: Creates a torrent of fire that incinerates a target.
Effect: 16 Fire Damage per second. Target is Ignited.
Requirements: Fire V, Fireball III
This spell is learned.
160 mana per second! No wonder it had knocked me on my butt. I wouldn’t be casting that anytime soon! Those requirements though—maybe I’d be able to cast one of them. I thought of the spell Fireball, and my view shifted smoothly to a star that was still nothing more than a muted red dot, dark and inert.
???
Requirements: ???
This spell is unlearned.
So, I knew Flame Jet but not Fireball?
I let my attention drift away from the Fireball spell and “zoomed out” effortlessly. Now I could see that I was hovering among an entire field of occluded red stars, with only Flame Jet “lit up.” Opalescent strands of light that I had missed before led almost invisibly between them. This must be the Fire element spell tree! Zooming out farther, I could see that there were indeed differently colored stars, arranged in a rough cylinder and scattered with lit orbs of their own.
Bind I
Cost: 25 MP
Range: 10 meters
Cast Time: 1.5 seconds
Duration: 3 seconds
Description: Coax the earth to bind the legs of your enemies.
Effect: Target is immobilized.
Requirements: Earth II
This spell is learned.
Life Drain I
Cost: 55 MP per second
Range: Touch
Cast Time: 5 seconds
Duration: Channeled
Description: Feed your life with the lives of others.
Effect: 2 HP per second per inflicted debuff
Requirements: Decay II
This spell is learned.
Blizzard I
Cost: 85 MP per second
Range: 15 meters, 3-meter-wide AoE
Cast Time: 6 seconds
Duration: Channeled
Description: Slow and damage your opponents over a wide area.
Effect: +1% Slowed, 1 Ice Damage per second
Requirements: Chill IV, Rain III
This spell is learned.
Haste I
Cost: 40 MP per second
Range: 15 meters
Cast Time: 3 seconds
Duration: 20 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Description: The air itself aids your movements
Effect: -3% to Action Speed
Requirements: Air V, Air Shield III, Featherweight III
This spell is learned.
Heal I
Cost: 60 MP
Range: 30 meters
Cast Time: 2.5 seconds
Duration: Instant
Description: Rapidly mend wounds.
Effect: 1 HP (1 HP per Wisdom)
Requirements: Slow Heal II
This spell is learned.
I had practiced all of these spells during the calibration, but now each and every one of them were out of my league, mana-wise. I circled the entire column, counting six total elemental “trees” while hoping to find a spell I could cast. I was pleased to have retaine
d the spells from the calibration, but with all of them being so pricey, I ended up just hoping to find something—anything—I could actually use. I moved to the base of the tree on which Heal resided, hoping that lower meant cheaper. There pulsed a single veiled point of light.
???
Requirements: Mana Seed of Light
This spell is unlearned.
Sure enough, each tree had a similar requirement. Mana Seed of Fire, Mana Seed of Earth… each basic spell required a mana seed to unlock it. Finding myself one of those would have to be a top priority.
The world brightened around me as I closed the UI, but my mood didn’t follow suit. One point of Intellect equated to 10 points of mana, so I’d need 3 points of Intellect before I could cast a single one of the spells, mana seed or no! There was literally nothing I could do.
The understanding that something was seriously wrong with my character setup began to hit home.
I checked my equipment. I had a full set of Roughspun garments, but not a single item aside from that. No weapons. No money. The clothes didn’t even provide additional defense. Somehow I looked exactly like myself, but it seemed as though I’d missed out on character creation entirely. I pulled up the main menu, ignoring the Character, Inventory, and Spells options. Skills, maybe?
Nothing.
My next thought was to contact customer support, except whereas every other screen loaded in front of me at a thought, customer support remained evasive. I worked my way through, menu by menu, but the only options available referenced the game. There was no “System” menu.
The world stretched out around me, the foreign sky suddenly terrifyingly large and achingly lonely. I was at sea, and there was no help coming. Even the in-game map showed only one bright dot in an endless fog.
I stared out over the rippling grass, trying to trace back to where I might have gone wrong. The only answer had to be the calibration process. Something I had done while lucid must have short-circuited my character setup. Maybe forcing the game to accept silent spellcasting had interfered?
As if searching for something misplaced, all I could think to do was to retrace my steps and try what I had learned during calibration.
Slowing my breath, I focused on my heartbeat. I needed to be calm in order to access the limen that enabled casting. The scope of my predicament helped to focus my attention, and I quickly achieved my goal. For a moment I tottered there, unsure of what to do next.
A sudden fanfare stole my attention, and notifications began to come thick and fast, displaying in white text in the bottom-left-hand side of my view.
You have acquired a new Class Skill: Concentration!
You have acquired a new Class Skill: Static Casting!
You have acquired a new Class Spell: Ether!
Sweet relief—although now it was obvious that there was something seriously wrong with my character. My Skills page reflected the updates:
Spellcasting Novice — Level 1
Your skill with spells.
Spell effects and impact are increased by 1% (+1% per level) from base.
Class Skills
Concentration (???) — Rank 1
Chance to resist interruption while casting is 10% (+10% per rank). Casting may still be interrupted by status effects such as Stunned and Knocked Down.
Static Casting (???) — Rank 1
Chance to successfully cast without somatic and verbal components is increased to 10% (+10% per rank). Static Casting may not be interrupted by Silenced or Paralyzed.
Class Spells
Ether I (???)
I suppose I’d gotten what I had been after. I’d been granted the ability to cast without moving or speaking, but the issues with my character creation made it clear I’d be paying for the honor. There was no way to judge the scope of that cost.
Accessing the Ether spell took me directly to the Spells UI and a new sphere of light. It was situated at the bottom tier of the spell trees, level with the basic spells for each element, but set in the very middle of the column. It seemed… wispy. Insubstantial. It wasn’t occluded like the other unlearned spells, it was just barely there: scarcely visible mist lazily swirling in, or on, an ephemeral globe. Once it was centered in my view, I read the text.
Ether I
Cost: None
Range: None
Cast Time: None
Duration: Indefinite
Description: Open your eyes to the mana that surrounds you.
Effect: +.5 to Mana Regeneration per Intellect
Requirements: Class Spell
This spell is learned.
So at that moment the spell would increase my Mana Regeneration by half. That could be very useful, since it scaled with my Int. It didn’t mean much at that moment though. If I had nothing to cast, I didn’t need Mana Regen!
Well, I thought, if that’s all I’ve got going for me, that’s all I’ve got going for me.
Dismissing the user interface, I activated the spell by simply intending it. Static Casting and Concentration triggered at will.
Ether.
Chapter 4
The world lost a tiny bit of coherence and a bit of color. For a moment I didn’t realize anything had changed, the shift was so subtle. It was as if there were suddenly the barest possible fog and a subtle feeling of movement that had been layered onto the world.
Turning toward the tree behind me, I could see that tiny tendrils of misty matter were licking along its trunk, flowing sluggishly upward. Slow eddies made their way through me too, albeit a little faster, a little more chaotically. Closing my eyes to focus on the effect, I could feel, hear, and even smell the slightest thrum. The sense was weak, but I almost thought I could feel the tree in front of me.
Marvelling at the sensation, I let minutes pass, noticing as I did so that each of my Class Skills had grown again from the effort.
It wasn’t long before watching mana move through the world around me lost its novelty. A cool effect, to be sure, but a passive one. It wouldn’t win me any fights. For that I’d need an offensive spell of some sort. Maybe I could learn one the same way I had learned Ether.
I knew what was necessary. I needed to hold myself on the verge of acting, pick a target, and push. I focused on the air three feet in front of me and cast, imagining a conduit from myself into the air while purposefully eschewing Static Casting to increase the odds of the spell working.
The words twisted in my mouth and in my mind, both unpronounceable and incomprehensible as my tongue wrangled them into existence. Simultaneously, my hands lifted from my knees of their own accord and began to move erratically through the air. Shocked by their sudden independence, I snatched them to my chest.
None of that had happened during the calibration!
But of course it hadn’t, I realized. Calibration was about finding my triggers: linking to the pathways of intention in my brain to understand how I would elicit certain actions. Calibration didn’t need to include any of the “special effects” the developers wanted to include. And what was that word again? For the spell? It skittered from my mind and from my memory. A very cool effect.
Standing, I planted my feet to stabilize myself against the autonomic movement of my hands and spoke the word out loud, feeling the enigmatic phonemes twist against my tongue. My hands traced patterns in the air, trailing the same insubstantial mist as the Ether spell sphere. I was so excited to be casting and so intrigued by the spell effects, that I lost my balance on the limen almost immediately, and the mist faded.
They were really going full-bore with this magic system if casting the most basic spell took so much practice!
Settling my thoughts and steeling my determination, I found the limen and cast again, this time managing to hold steady through the entire process.
A sense of pressure built inside me and then, as if through a straw, mana moved out of me and down the imagined conduit, creating a flow. I was able to maintain the channel for three long seconds before it winked out. The e
ddies in the mana resumed their erratic undulation.
You have acquired a new Class Spell: Flow!
Now we were getting somewhere!
The thrum around me had shifted as I cast and now there was a perceptible current to it, a barely noticeable feeling of negative pressure and a slow pull in my direction. Looking around, I could see that the eddies of mist were flowing smoothly toward me in a three-foot radius. The misty threads really were mana, I realized, and just as the spell description said, they were everywhere!
Auger & Augment Page 3
