"I swear! When Theo gets back I'm going to slap him for not getting more water..!" Drake huffed, buckets of sweat beading from his skin.
"Why are you not using your water magic?" Natto interjected from her seat on the rock, looking at him confused.
Drake turned his face into a mess of confusion, "What do you mean!? I always thought drinking water made from mana would have like, I don't know adverse effects? You know like that one anime where it gives you the runs," he pointed out.
Natto's face scrunched up, "What? No. Water made from mana is perfectly safe, what sort of backwards show did you watch to come to that conclusion?"
Drake scratched his cheek sheepishly, another droplet of sweat cascading down from his bow to drip off his chin.
Coughing Drake moved on, "I'm only a few more kilos away from completing the quest. And we have plenty of time left, thankfully. This Mine was a real blessing," Drake said, grinning at the debuff timer.
Divine Frailty
Lasts 3 Hours 43 Minutes 18 Seconds
"Now all I need is the last of the Mana Infused Silver and we are done!" Drake shouted, "But first I need some water, I've sweated at least 5 times my weight in water…."
Natto waved her hand in front of her face, "Yes, I have certainly noticed…" she mumbled in besmirchment.
Drake gave her a smile as he walked over, "Oh you don't say?"
"What are you doing you smelly beast! Stay away!" she shouted at him.
"Awe but we were just good friends when I gave you those cores, now you don't want anything to do with me? I'm hurt," Drake said in faux offense.
She jumped backwards to space herself from Drake, "You reek worse than a wet animal. Consider yourself lucky I am even within line of sight of you, let alone breathing the same air," she scoffed.
"Now that's just rude," Drake laughed, squirting her with a summoned stream of cold water from his hand.
Natto shrieked at the sudden dousing of cold water, her hair and fur deflating and sticking to herself.
"Haha! Now who's the wet animal!" Drake said in triumph.
She leveled him with a murderous gaze, her hand slowly reaching into her sleeve, a metal gleam slowly reflecting in the torchlight.
Drake's laughing and smile turned to a grimace, "Okay! A little water never hurt anyone, here," Drake said, pushing some wind combined with some light fire for a warm wind in a makeshift air dryer.
Natto's hair and fur curled backwards with the flowing wind, as she closed her eyes and leaned into the pleasant feeling.
Wow, that pacified her quickly… She kinda looks like that pomeranian from that one movie with Ryan and Sandra, in like what 2010? 2009? Even her tail is wagging! I didn't know squirrels could do that… He mused.
"Satisfied?" Drake said, still blowing the pleasant wind at the irate red furred construct.
"Mmmm… I require five more minutes… Make sure to get my tail, it is still damp. And be delicate! My fur is worth more than your life!" she ordered.
"Yes, your highness…" Drake laughed, aiming the stream of warm wind towards her tail.
After the subsequent five minutes and a much more placated angry little red squirrel construct. Drake got to bathing himself. Slightly regretting once again for the lack of soap and shampoo.
My kingdom for a bar of soap… He sighed inwardly as he poured warm water over himself and his clothing, taking time to scrub at his wounds tenderly, checking the scarring underneath the now blackened flesh.
Thankfully his regeneration had been a great help in curing the raw flesh and sealing the wounds. It even seemed to completely heal his internal injuries as the bruising was nearly non existent at this point. His exhaustion was lessened as well with his Weakened status falling off.
While he poked around his body in between washing of the filth, he pondered on how he would fill the time after completing his first Profession Quest. Would it be better to continue Mining to raise his proficiency? Or go and try his hand at jewelry crafting?
But he quickly remembered he had no tools, and dismissed the crafting for the moment. Leaving his other options of continuing to chip away at the walls, or practice his magic. He had after all only had limited practice with his elements and also needed to figure out how to use them with his endowment.
He had only given himself a brief period to look over his skills while walking and mining the mines, but he did not notice the additions to some of his skills.
Elemental Endowment P1(42%) [F Rank]
A spell that allows the user to use elemental magic to perform extraordinary feats through endowing aspects of their magic into their body and weapons.
A spell that places a buff based on Elemental Magic used with the spell for the user. While the spell is in use, the user may not perform magic with said Elemental Magic. This is not limited to base elements and includes magics of confluence.
. . . . .
Spell: Endowment - "The power of Lightning is not thine to adhere, but mine to possess. Endowment."
Effect: Increase in Dexterity and Strength by 50%. In addition to increased reaction time, and visual acuity. (Increased based on Proficiency)
Spell: Endowment - "The power of Ice is not thine to adhere, but mine to possess. Endowment."
Effect: Increase in Dexterity by 50% and Active Regeneration by 10%. In addition to increase by 50% of Magic based damage. (Increased based on Proficiency)
Spell: Endowment - "The power of Magma is not thine to adhere, but mine to possess. Endowment."
Effect: Increase in Strength and Defensive Effectiveness by 50%. In addition to a 20% increase in resistance against Debuffs. (Increased based on Proficiency)
Cost: Use of Elemental School of Magic while the spell is in use. In cases of confluence magic, all included Schools of Magic will be locked.
Cooldown: None
This is quickly becoming my favorite skill. I can only imagine how strong it gets at later ranks. But what's bothering me is that now that I have access to confluence magic, why did it only open the door for three different types of deviant magic? I have a feeling it's because of my lack of understanding of elements or some other practical reason but I'll have to look into it more or… He thought, looking back to Natto.
"Hey Natto," Drake said, still sopping wet as he went through his mental gymnastics.
She looked up, with a look of 'What is it now?'
Drake just ignored it, already used to her sassy personality, "Do you have any idea why I can't use things like Nature Magic, Metal, Gravity, Space and Time or anything else when I have access to the four basic elements? Seems a bit flawed to me,"
"Yes," she said flatly, looking at him almost pitifully, "The reason is very simple, you are not mentally capable of wrapping your head around those concepts. As much as I like to tease you about being an imbecile, those are extremely complicated forms of magic, and without specific skills to aid you. I am afraid you are simply not able to understand those concepts at the moment. Certainly through hard work you could do it," she said consolingly, "And give or take a few hundred years."
Drake scoffed. It wasn't anything he didn't suspect already but knowing the truth helped. Because that would mean a very small minority would be able to do certain things without their specialty without in-depth knowledge of a subject.
And though it pained him to realize that his Dual Class wasn't the omnipotent class he thought it could be, he still had many positives within his skill set.
Now he had another decision to make. He had been putting it off because of his body, and fear of not being able to handle two stones in such a short amount of time, but he eyed the Oppression Stone from his inventory window.
[Skill Stone: Oppression] [Rare]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Oppression tree.]
He needed to face the fact that he would need the strength of this stone sooner than later.
Drake began washing himself again, gingerly peeling away some more scar tissue from his side as he asked Natto, "So I've been wondering. Why haven't you changed at all since you ranked up?"
When Natto had ranked up from No Rank to F Rank, there had been virtually no change in her appearance or strength. She had told Drake that she was now able to access more information but it had been of little help so far. And Drake had half expected her to grow or something, maybe gain some more tails like a mystical fox only a squirrel.
"What would you like ape, an update on every little thing I am now privy to?" She asked incredulously.
"Actually yeah, that would be a good start," He nodded, pouring water on his head, finally feeling clean enough to start drying himself off.
Natto was taken aback for a moment at the candid answer, but began explaining the small amount she could pertaining to her 'new' knowledge of the tutorial, ranks, and some of the races that he would possibly meet outside the tutorial on the newly merged Earth.
"- so the 'new' Earth will be around 10 times larger than normal, as it has been merged with at minimum 5 other planets, and maximum 10 depending on the size, but there is always a standard for the two new worlds in an integrated system. They must meet the minimum threshold of resources for a F Grade Planet, and be hospitable for the merged races of said planet. This will be turning a few things on their heads as climates will not function the same as they did before. Some spaces of the planet will be severely harsher or more accommodating depending on what planet they were integrated from," she said at length.
"So what does that mean exactly for my family? They were only 30 minutes away by car before this all happened," Drake asked slightly apprehensive.
"I am sorry to tell you this, Drake, but they could technically be anywhere. The planet is placed in a somewhat puzzle piece way when they are merged, so someone or someplace that was right next to you could very well be on the other side of the planet," she said, her face becoming slightly downcast from delivering the news.
Drake's face also tensed as he contemplated what to do now. The whole idea of him just taking a short run to them and making sure they were ok was out the window now.
"You said that when the tutorial ends we are going to be placed where we were before, so my apartment," Drake asked, his eyes still on the gray stone colored floor of the mineshaft, "So that applies to my family, what about the kids under 16?"
"They will as well go to their previous locations. But Drake," she began looking up at him with a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips, "I do have a way to find your family, but it will not be instantaneous, and you may need to wait a small time before you can use the method to find them."
Drake's head perked up, "What! What is it? How long will it take?"
Natto's hands went up placatingly, "Please cease. Hear me out, there are some things first we must do, so please stay focused on the tutorial for now. But you must do two things, there is an item called a Town Sanction Node, that you may buy from one of the system made stores after the tutorial. Only those with an Assistant would know of it, unless there was some sort of interference from a tutorial sponsor," she explained, "So I must ask that you withhold at least 200,000 TP for after the tutorial, 100,000 for the Node, and 100,000 for the quest afterwards."
"Wait, how is that even fair?" Drake asked.
She smiled, "Who said anything in the world was fair? But yes there is some equality for this. The node and the quest are available to everyone, but using TP will skip the prerequisites and allow you to get a head start on nearly everyone."
Drake was ecstatic, a glimmer of hope building into purpose. Now he had an even bigger reason to continue to gain levels and TP. He didn't need to hear more, as he went ahead and found the nearest silver vein and began going to town, his determination once again renewed like a fire receiving more kindle.
Theodore had ran for an hour straight through the forest, his excessive need to reach his liege was of the utmost importance.
He had long lost the trailing Goblins thanks to his new skill Grand Dark Veil, his doppelgangers able to do just enough to elude the monsters.
Passing trees in a blur Theodore crossed the familiar dirt road, marked with a giant Kobold in overalls. He was now within distance of the Outpost, its wooden outsides a blessing to his eyes, and sore feet.
Theodore beelined for the Gate, uncloaking himself as he shouted and beat on the door.
"My Liege! This one implores you to open the gate! I have pressing news to apprise you of!"
Theodore continued to batter at the door with his fists, his hair and clothes becoming disheveled. The gate began to creek suddenly forcing Theodore to cease his pounding and back up to allow it to swing open.
But what awaited Theodore was nothing. His liege was not at the gate wheel. And before Theodore could turn around or cast his cloaking spell again, a sharp pain assailed his side, accompanied by a whisper.
"Well well, what do we have here..? The butler?" the voice whispered, slowly revealing itself, as Theodore looked down at the small knife that protruded from his abdomen, it slowly painted in a bright red that pooled and dripped at the hilt.
Theodore looked up to find a man a head shorter than himself, with mousey facial features, and a devilish grin.
"Let's have some fun shall we? While we wait for the other one," said the man, as other men and women in similar attire of black, some wearing masks revealed themselves as well. Each holding short swords or daggers partnered with sinister expressions.