-You have learned a tier 1 skill, 10 exp awarded! -
-Gather Mana- By focusing the mana within yourself you can draw other mites of mana towards you, increasing mana regeneration while concentrating. Increases mana regeneration by 20%. Requires channeling.
-Domains- Magic, Mind, Peace.
Tars was quite happy with the skill. At early levels the increase was small, but by level five, Feerestia said it will double his mana regeneration. She also said there is a higher tier version that allows you to still move and act, even fight if your focus is high enough.
Tars tried that version first, hoping he could skip passed the weaker version but ten minutes of trying forced him to give up on that for now. Still, the skill only took a half hour to learn, which was absurd to the two women he was being taught by. Tars just assumed it was related to a skill he'd already had, even though he wasn't driven by instinct this time.
Now that he had this skill it was time to focus his efforts on learning an elemental skill. Tars chose Wind Magic first, he felt it might be easier with the ever-present wind on his face.
"Tars," Feerestia said, her voice showing an uncharacteristic amount of hesitation. "What if you can't learn any of the elements I know?"
Tars understood what she meant. Her personal quest was based on her ability to teach him, if he can't learn from her then she has no chance to complete her quest. He knew the quest was important to her, it would grant her a wish, after all, even though he wasn't sure why learning Earth Magic was so important to her.
"Don't worry," Tars responded with confidence. "I have a couple of reasons why it will work. One of which is that the quest would not work if it were impossible."
"Oh," she said, looking impassive once more. "I didn't know the ability said that."
"It doesn't 'say' it, it's just a feeling," Tars corrected and he saw Feerestia immediately lose her mask again.
Tars sighed. "It's like a skill, you can hear about it but when you know it and the system acknowledges it you can really understand it," he explained. "And I know the skill works that way."
He could tell she wasn't convinced and looked around briefly. "You are all under a Vow to keep my secrets for the betterment of the village, right?" he asked while glancing at Ponter to let him know this included him as well.
Miussa and Feerestia agreed that they were under a Vow and acknowledged that whatever he would say next fell under that Vow's protection. Ponter nodded briefly before turning away to watch the grass as they rode passed it, but Tars knew he was paying close attention.
"The reason I can give quests like this," he whispered looking at each of the three, "the reason everyone received an emergency quest when those bandits attacked, and the other reason I'm not worried about learning elemental magic is because I am a Blessed One of Arthaesis."
Only the Miccans knew this secret so far, the rest simply knew he was under a Vow to be their Protector.
Tars was starting to grow used to the shocked and awed expressions of the people around him.
"So yes, I truly can learn Wind, Water, Life, and any other element there is," Tars stated with confidence. Even if Tars was not able to use some of these elements before he awoke from the crystal, being a Blessed One of the God of Magic guaranteed that the Elemental Proficiencies would come easy to him. Or at least, easier than it would to most.
"I have a quest to learn an element before dawn. I believe I can learn one before dusk."
Tars smiled at the two women seated on either side of him. "Shall we make it a competition?" he asked them.
"I don't see how you learning a skill counts as a challenge, deary," Miussa replied.
"You have your own personal quest to complete, do you not?" Tars answered with an excited grin. Competition seemed fun to him. But gambling not as much, when he thought about it. "Which ever of us improves a Proficiency first, wins. I have another secret I can reveal, you see."
"If I learn Wind Elemental Proficiency first, Feerestia wins. If you level up your Life Elemental Proficiency first, you win. Winner gets a gift that I think you will like. What do you say?" Tars asked looking back and forth between the two.
If Tars was able to give Arthaesis' Blessings, he saw no reason he couldn't give those of Ospenielle. He also saw no reason to wait until his system assigned a quest for it, either. Perhaps it might still be given and instantly completed at dawn the next day, for all he knew.
The only thing stopping him from giving Blessings of Ospenielle would be that it means revealing that he is twice-blessed. Between Tars' 'Virtuous Soul' skill and the Vow's they were under, he believed the risk was minimal.
Both women were curious and excited to get started. They both had a drive to complete their quests anyway, so there was no reason not to.
Tars would give all three of them, Ponter included, a Personal Quest from Ospenielle. The winner would just get it first.
That was how the three spent the next hour. Ponter Took over driving the wagon, while the other three sat in the back, upon piles of fabric, clothes, and blankets, trying to improve themselves.
Tars believed he had an unfair advantage. His Blessing gave him hints about the elements, making them easier to feel and understand. Either that or Wind was an element he'd already known as well.
The next two hours progressed like that, with Miussa alternating between casting her 'Healing Light' and using 'Meditation', occasionally listening in to what Feerestia was explaining to Tars about learning a new Element.
For Tars he would listen to the elf's patient instruction then try to implement what she'd said. He also practiced 'Meditation', but he lost focus repeatedly. Sometimes a bump on the dirt path would jostle him, sometimes he would see Miussa casting her spell and he be watching the Life Mana flowing outside of her hands in complex patterns.
It was only an hour until dusk when Tars released a narrow burst of Wind Magic that grabbed held in the palm of Feerestia's hand and flung it thirty feet away, into the grass just off the path they traveled. It was one of the three tier one Wind spells she was showing him.
Tars then felt a pulse and, immediately after, a vibration coursing through his mind. Feerestia had mentioned that the feelings were different for everyone. Afterwards, Tars put some thought into how he wanted his notifications to work.
He settled on the 'Dinging' sound of a bell for important messages, such as level ups, class changes, and quest completions. The pulsing feeling would now represent a change in a stat or skill. And the buzzing vibration feeling would be for minor changes, such as quest updates.
He wanted to see exactly what it was that he got and so opened his menu.
-You have learned a tier 1 skill, 10 exp awarded!-
Turning to the page for skills he saw the expected spell.
-Propel Object- An active spell that uses a burst of Wind to grab a small object and hurl it in a given direction. Higher skill levels increase the force generated by the skill. Heavier items cannot be thrown as far.
-Domains- Wind, Trickery.
For now, he just had one more thing to confirm.
-Wind Elemental Proficiency- Novice 1/5.
Switching to the quest page confirmed the update for learning a new Element. Now he was left with learning a new Sword Art and training in battle for another 27 minutes. His fight against the Ubolclaws only lasted three minutes, it seemed.
Tars smiled in joy and gratitude to his teacher. He stayed peaceful, however, as Miussa was still practicing.
Excited with his progress, but unable to move on to the sword training until the caravan stopped, Tars decided to learn the other Wind spells. When Miussa finished or the wagons stopped he would do something different.
Feerestia suggested that he learn Wind Blade next, as it was used in the Elemental Art Wind Slash.
Where Ice Lunge was a long-distance piercing attack, Wind Slash was a medium ranged slashing attack.
With the addition of Wind Elemental Proficiency, guiding pips of Wind Mana became much easier. Before, the pips moved sluggishly, as if reluctant. Now they felt more willing to go along with Tars' wishes.
This led to an easier time moving the pips into the correct patterns for creating the spells he was trying to form. It also made them less likely to suddenly veer off in a random direction, which would cause pain and ruin his spell work.
That still didn't make it easy, however. Learning the patterns was difficult and trying to pay attention to every piece of Wind mana was taxing on the mind.
-Your Mind stat has increased by 1!-
'That was what they meant about using the appropriate stat,' Tars thought, as he recovered for a few minutes after his most recent failure.
"Haha! I did it!" Miussa shouted in triumph! "Look! I created a new spell too!"
A soft glow covered Miussa's arm. It looked like the Healing Light spell she'd used before except that even after she was done the spell continued.
"It's called 'Regrowth of the Light' and is Life, Light, and Healing Domains!"
Tars and Feerestia congratulated her in her new spell and her increased proficiency.
"I'm not even sad about losing the bet! Well, not much, anyway," the Tailor corrected with a smile. "This is the first time I've improved in Life Magic in almost ten years! For that alone, I'm happy!"
While Feerestia and Miussa started talking about their elements and how they wanted to continue their training, Tars went back to learning his Wind Blade.
It only took a couple more tries, as he was pretty close before he paused.
-You have learned a tier 1 skill, 10 exp awarded!-
-Wind Blade- An active spell that creates a narrow strip of wind into a slight arc that flies in the direction you choose. The wind is sharp as a sword, cutting whatever it comes across.
-Domains- Wind, Swords, Combat.
His Wind Elemental Proficiency didn't increase, despite the fact that learning new skills was one of the fastest ways to increase it. But Feerestia also told him that proficiency skills were some of hardest to increase.
"Learning a new spell is more than just memorizing a spell pattern," she'd told him. "It is a way of showing the system that you understand, at least in part, why the pattern is shaped the way it is."
"Eventually, when you learn enough patterns, you can start creating your own spells," Feerestia had told him. "But that is far away from us. Just something to keep in mind while you are learning."
For the next hour, as the sun dipped closed to the horizon, Tars practiced Life Magic with Miussa. Feerestia stayed mostly quiet, but for once, she seemed comfortable. Not smiling, but not entirely impassive, either.
It turned out, Miussa had already known of the spell she had just learned and had even seen the pattern for it a few times. It was simply a new spell for her.
Tars was closer to casting the 'Healing Light' spell, but his skill with life pips was lacking. Life was constantly moving. Sometimes from one place to another, sometimes vibrating in place, and other times just changing its own shape.
Tars had to learn the patterns as well as learn which pips could be left as they were and which had to be constantly monitored.
When the caravan stopped Tars was mentally drained from trying to wrangle the pips of mana. 'Sword practice sounds much easier!' he thought with relief.