After upgrading my status, I started looking around in the shop I chose. Potions, scrolls and other consumables which were overpriced by sometimes double or thrice the usual price laid around. But beggars, - or in my case, a weakling, - couldn't be picky. I bought twenty health potions and ten mana potions. Each of the potions for 10 copper was quite a rip-off considering that their initial worth was 2 copper, maybe 3 if they had some special features. But I considered smiling, before remembering my teeth and tried to look as cute as possible under the shadow of my huge hood.
After taking all of the items to the counter, I asked the mage on the counter for the rare spells after buying the items. The mage eyed me suspiciously, until I placed three silver on his counter, accompanied by a bronze coin.
[Your affection level with [Mage Willis] increased by +5]
The system said and I saw the mage brighten up, his heavy lidded eyes opening almost fully and sparkles erupting inside of them. His skinny frame looked like waving seaweed as he hastily grabbed the coins and made a small dance. He then fell back into his acting as a shopkeeper, his lids sinking back down to perfection his image as a tired scholar, accompanied by ink-stained robes, dark blue eye bags and a slow walking pace. His calm face and demeanor in stark contrast to his earlier happy and giddy self.
The mage brought me to a small chamber in which comical looking thick scrolls with wax seals enthroned on velvety red pillows sat. Golden mist whafted around in the room hazily, giving it a magical feeling. This shopkeeper was truly a genius at tricking...uhm, selling towards gullible customers. Luckily I tipped him enough that he wouldn't dare to charge me double. Other players once found this out: Depending on how much you would bribe NPC's with, the higher the possibility that they would give you occasional or permanent discount. Often bound to the product you bought in their shop or the purchase you made.
My total wealth had already decreased to 1 platinum 57 silver and 6 bronze coins. But I needed at least one or two useful skills so I could survive hunting. This shitty class of mine had no decent attacking skill and I needed at least one. At least if I didn't want to use the standard attack which only dealt 5~10 damage per hit or the staff whacking which resulted in 15 damage per hit if I hit the head.
I asked the mage politely: "Honored [Mage], may I ask what rare spells are residing in those magnificent chambers?" While handing him another bronze coin, deeply crying inside, the mage finally started explaining the skill-scrolls in their use, price and offered me a discount of three to the price of two. I almost jumped, too. It was the second best option! What happened? Why did I have so much luck while it still was zero?
I tried not to jinx this discount and looked at all the rare skills and spells offered. There were seven skills available:
[Burning earthwall]
[Area heal]
[Twisting thorns]
[Spatial rift]
[Slippery floor]
[Hawk's view]
[Charming smile]
Some of them were known to me. Especially [Slippery floor], because I used it nonstop. But I needed to increase my battle power first before I chose any supporting skills. [Slippery floor] was a neat skill but without the additional skill [icicle field], it was nothing but a nice gimmick to slow enemies down. [Hawk's view] was also a supporting skill, enabling one to view a larger part of the map and find monsters from a higher distance if activated. But it wasn't a skill that could directly harm others. [Area heal] was a special case, because heal could harm undead creatures like zombies, skeletons and ghouls. Otherwise it could heal parties really well for being a rare skill. But it had a high mana fee. For me alone, it wasn't worth the cost. Among the rest of spells [Burning earthwall], [Twisting thorns], [Spatial rift] and [Charming smile] I barely knew any of them. So I listened to the explanation of [Mage Willis] although it was long and sometimes tangled up in its own structure.
But after listening to him, I could access the descriptions of the scrolls without owning them.
[Burning earthwall] was a skill I could consider. It dealt damage to enemies who approached the wall. The wall could also be cast around oneself. Though erecting one meter of wall costed ten MP and keeping the flames on consumed 5 MP every three seconds. If I wasn't careful, I would run dry on MP before even starting the fight.
Contrary to that, [Twisting thorns] seemed really useful. Based on the level, a tendril was summoned. Growing it cost only 20 MP and it could extend up to 30 meters. If an enemy touched the tendril, tiny thorns with barbs could rip their skin or pelt into shreds. Moving it to follow my will cost 1 MP per second. It instantly was my fist pick.
[Spatial rift] summoned a crack of reality and if enemies either were attacked by it or ran into it, they could suffer bodily distortions which could incapacitate them immediately. They could also instantly die if the distortion affected critical joints. But it was relatively small at level 1 and since I wasn't fast enough, I wasn't sure if I would be able to use it in battle. The MP usage was okay, but this was because it had a cooldown of thirty seconds. In a battle of life and death, 30 seconds were a lot to use such a crucial skill.
The last one, [Charming smile] was almost as I expected in its name: A charming spell which would stun, charm or tame enemies temporarily. It was basically a status effect lottery. With no guaranteed effect. The more mana one used, the more the probability rose. It could be a targeted effect or be used as an AoE effect. But the probability would be lower the more targets were included. For me, it was useless. My luck was rock bottom so I wouldn't bet on pay to win or probability related stuff. It was just a source of losing patience and money.
Grinning, I chose [Twisting thorns], [Spatial rift] and [Slippery floor] and wanted to buy the scrolls, when [Mage Willis] shook his head and said: "I see that you already chose a certain school of magic and can't learn spells from the school of space, school of ice or school of nature. Please select other spells fitting your school of magic."
Wait a minute. Schools of magic? This bullshit prevented most players from learning different skills until they could branch out at level 10! I was level 0! How the heck should I level up if I didn't have attack-related skills?! I suddenly wished I was a tank again. At least I didn't need to wield a wand to kill unsuspecting enemies. How laughable would it look if a mage was found chasing rabbits, trying to whack them with their staff to kill them instead of using their magic. In the imagination of my future, a cold shiver ran down my back. Never!
I needed methods to kill enemies asap without any skills (and staffs).
I wanted to be a battle mage again, or a classless player. As a battle mage, I could learn from different magic schools no matter how hard the spell is, as long as I acquire it. But abandoning this class was almost impossible without erasing my inventory.
I wanted to turn around and leave to determine my further course of action, as [Mage Willis] spoke again: "Lucky for you, I have one skill befitting your class. Because you seem to be a passionate young mage, I will sell it to you for just 5 silver!"
I almost coughed blood at his remark. 5 silver was still too expensive for one of these spells. Most of them were useless anyway. But since I thought it could aid me somewhat in battle, I looked at the scroll that [Mage Willis] pointed at. It was the most useless of them all, [Charming smile]. But thinking of my situation, it may be able to assist me a bit. The cooldown was also only 10 seconds long. Maybe I could spam it in battle.
But I would need to wield another weapon if I wanted to kill monsters. Maybe this was the only perk of my race, wielding more than one weapon simultaneously sounded absolutely nuts in case of a talented fighter. In my hands it would only spell chaos.
It seemed that there weren't many opportunities left, though.
With sad eyes, I started to haggle with the mage until I only needed to pay 4 silver and 7 bronze coins before leaving the shop, in search of a smithy or shop selling weaponry and armor.
—--
New Skill:
[Charming smile lvl.1] (active)
Description: By smiling and using any amount of mana, different status effects can be triggered based on the relationship with the target. The effects are random. Duration and severity of effect can be enhanced by higher usage of mana. Both usable as a single target and an area of effect (AoE) skill.
Damage: Can cause different status effects. None of them affects the HP of the targets.
Range: Can reach targets up to a distance of 10 m.
Effect: There is no guaranteed effect. Possible status effects are stun, charm or temporarily taming. There can be other effects, too.
The lesser targets which would be affected, the higher is the probability of the possible effects.
Cost: Variable sum of mana per activated use. The more mana one uses, the higher the probability of effects.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Remarks: If only your smile could topple cities or stop wars, you wouldn't need this skill.]