"Welcome Sirus Damniel to the New Temple, I am the Templar. You can now choose a class, I assume that's what you're here for."
"Correct."
"Unfortunately, the cost for a class change is 15,000 gold. If you need money, I would suggest doing bounties."
"Nope, here you go."
"Really? Well, yes this is 20,000. It's funny. Most people with your experience are starving, begging on the street. Aren't you lucky!"
"They're not my responsibility. I want to be a mage."
"You don't have questions and don't want a description?"
"Nope. Give it to me."
"Alright then."
[Class Unlocked: Mage]
[Skills Unlocked: Fireball, Mana-circuits, Magic Missile]
[Stat Increase: +1 Intelligence]
[Aura and physique skills: -20% Efficiency]
[Player Name: Sirus Damniel
Lvl: 3
Class: Mage
Skills: Viewer's Guiding Eye, Ball of Fire, Mana-circuits, Magic Spear, Basic Knife Throwing, Courage, Mana-Heart, Novice Halberd Arts, Shock, Novice Dagger Arts, Novice Spear Arts
Titles: First Place, Conqueror, Promising Candidate
Strength: 2.06
Intelligence: 2.7
Dexterity: 1.0
Mana: 27/27
Unallocated Stats: .4]
"In the interest of fairness, let's try to keep this even."
[Unallocated stats: .4, +.4 Dexterity]
[Title: First Place
Grade: A+
Receive 10,000 Gold monthly as long as record time is held.]
[Skill: Ball of Fire:
Use mana and an incantation to create a ball of fire that can be shot or thrown
Grade: E
Cost: 15 Mana]
! Use skill 150 times to evolve to Fireball
[Skill: Magic Spear:
Use mana and an incantation to create a ball of magic that can be shot or thrown.
Grade: E+
Cost: 15 Mana]
! Use skill 150 times to evolve to Magic Missile
[Skill: Mana-Circuits:
Increases the ease of flow of mana throughout the body
Grade: E+]
! Train for 50 hours and reach a distinct understanding to evolve to Mana Veins
[Skill: Shock: Causes electricity to flow through physical contact.
Grade: E
Cost: 10 Mana]
! Use 200 times to evolve to skill Electric Palm]
"Three free skills is amazing, and much more than I expected. I'm more than excited to test them. I know the practice range exists for the mage spells, but I also want to use the Fighter's training Ground."
Sirus went to the Mage's Practice Ground, an area similar to what one would expect from an archery range. While this area looked awful from the constant explosions, the target area regenerated quickly, so it evened out. The Fighter's Hall had wooden test dummies that could dodge and block to a certain extent, but the Ivory Tower seemed a bit higher tech. Their dummies legitimately resembled monsters, and wore armor.
After skimming through some books, he found a guide that included incantations near the shooting range, and read everything he could.
"Incantations are personal, and vary in large degrees between mages. The only rules being to include the exact name of the spell within the incantation, and the mana consumed will never be less than the amount listed on the skill.
The longer the incantation you use, the more powerful the skill, and the more mana it will consume. Phrasing can also alter size, duration, penetration, and strength, though they also increase mana cost.
Try to memorize a short incantation that you can use quickly in the heat of battle, rather than something long and drawn out. It's better to use a different skill rather than alter one through an incantation."
'Interestingly unique. I would assume Ball of Fire would be a little too short, and its a little too bland for my tastes anyways. How about
Incinerate Everything: Fireball!
And
Pierce Armor: Magic Spear!
Hopefully the incantations can help with damage and penetration, but I can't really compare damage easily given the lack of quantifiable data."
Regardless, Sirus went through different incantations, finding what words would change what, and what would happen if his intention was different from his words. Every once in a while, just like with strength, he would get a notification.
[Intelligence increased by .01]
After a few hours, he remembered the reward for his last quest, the Flame Rune.
[Item: Flame Rune
Grade: D
When Broken, increases affinity for fire]
'I guess I squeeze it?'
The Flame rune was nothing more than a glowing orange marking on a rock, and when he squeezed it, it broke. Once he regained enough mana, he could feel the ease for using Ball of Fire increased, and so did its size, but the mana cost didn't increase.
In the interim of mana regeneration, Sirus would walk away from the noises of the explosions, and try to concentrate on his other skill, Mana Circuits.
He felt like he had gained a new set of blood vessels, but one's that moved mana instead. The mana felt hot, and like the pins and needles of a muscle that's gone unused for too long. Though it was only within a few inches of his skin, he felt like he could feel particles in the air, just like the mana in his body. He didn't think there was a benefit from this level of 6th sense, but it was nice to feel the progress.
Hours passed, and Sirus' incantations improved.
"Consume at my command: Fireball!"
"Piercing Armor, Breaking Hide: Magic Spear"
The fireball had lessened its explosive radius, but the damage increased, and the magic Spear improved when the target was a beast.
In the time that his mana was too exhausted to even bother with Mana-Circuit training, he threw his knives at nearby trees, and did basic Halberd motions to improve strength.
Soon enough, it became dark enough that he couldn't see the tree he was throwing at, and decided to turn in. After wandering by the nearby areas, the cheapest inn he could find was 500 Gold, consisting of a straw bed and a single chair.
'I hate being poor. I mean, this is still better than camping, but it's quite sad to me how little of a difference it feels like.'
This wasn't the first time he had stayed at an inn, so he learned some tricks, although it wasn't much. He devised a method of organizing the straw so none of it would poke through the sheets. But more importantly, he bathed in the river before looking for an Inn.
Instead of going to the mage's range, he returned to the fighter's training ground, but that didn't mean he stopped practicing magic. Rather than shooting off his fireballs and missiles, he simply played with them, trying as many weird things as he could think of.
Stuttering through incantations, decreasing the mana flow into the fireball, simply waiting until he ran out of mana, casting shock and magic missile at the same time. Anything.
Despite the amount that he practiced, and the fatigue it brought, he learnt little that wasn't already obvious.
Changes in incantations simply means failure, just depends on how it fails.
Waiting until he was out of mana sucked all the energy from his body.
And the only remotely helpful part, it is possible to change the size of the fireball not just through the incantation, but the conscious amount of mana inputted into the.
In the interim, Sirus continued his work with the halberd, but continued to more complex movements, like bringing out a dagger when the halberd is grabbed, or quick deflections against the dummy.
'I feel like I'm past the point of learning comfortability, and I'm now noticing how little I really know about what's going on. The manuals are helpful, but there's only so much you can learn from a dummy.'
"Excuse me! Instructor? You got an hour or two?"
"Depends! You got the money?"
"I do!"
"Then I have the time."
[Initiated Basic Player training.
Injuries obtained during the training session will heal 10x faster.]
! Skill Experience increases by 5%
! Skill Experience increases by 8%
'Does that mean this is recognized by the system, or part of the system?'
"Are you a person?"
"How forward! I think so, but you might not. My name is Hajin. Regardless, that's not what you're paying me for."
Sirus took up a wooden halberd, and Hajin a sword. For the entirety of their training time, they spared, and while it was instruction, it was still very violent. After an hour, Sirus fell on his ass more times than he could count and his entire body was one big bruise.
"Thank you. I think. It was helpful in the long term. But at the moment, I hate you."
"Oh, stop complaining. All those injuries will be gone within a few hours. Go work on your magic or whatever."
Sirus wanted to, but first he had to make notes. His inexperience was something that he hated, and wanted to get over as soon as possible. Throughout the session, he was so focused on fighting, he forgot to breathe, and was still apprehensive whenever Hajin got into close combat. They weren't things that were easy to train outside of sparing or combat, but he wanted to do his best.
He had money for four more days before needing to get more, and wanted one more hour after those days to see his improvement.
For the following five hours, he stayed in the training grounds, practicing what he fell short on. Only after he felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion did he go to eat and sleep.
This training regime continued for the next four days, alternating between days focusing on magic and physique.
After spending hours meditating with his mana, his senses increased. His sense for magic had increased to two feet, which really didn't help him much, but he was happy to see it. He could also tell the differences between the magic in the air, sensing colder and warmer, darker and lighter particles. Additionally, he noticed that his mana recharged faster while meditating, and noted it as something to do in combat interim.
[Conditions Met: Mana-Circuits has evolved to Mana Veins]
[Skill: Mana Veins:
Largely increases the flow of magic throughout the body
Grade: B-]
By the end of the four days, he had improved massively. After firing off his 150th Fireball and Magic Spear, they increased in rank. Shock didn't make explosions or destroy targets, so Sirus unintentionally practiced it less, so it hadn't been used enough to upgrade.
[Skill: Fireball:
Use mana and an incantation to create a powerful ball of fire that can be shot or thrown
Rank: D+
Cost: 12 Mana]
! Use 500 times to evolve to Flame Bomb
[Skill: Magic Missile: Use mana and an incantation to create a piercing ball of magic that can be shot or thrown. Increased Magic Piercing
Rank: D+
Cost: 12 Mana]
! Use 500 times to evolve to Piercing Magic Missile
'A ten percent decrease in cost is nice, and the wording seems to imply a greater degree of power. I would test it, but I'm so goddamn tired of these same two damn spells, I want to do something else.'
Sirus left the range, going to a place he was much more excited to be, the training ground.
"One more hour, Hajin. I want to see how I've improved!"
"That's the spirit! Let's see how many times you fall on your ass this time!"
Sirus did indeed fall, but also improve.
"You've done well. Good even. I can see you are really one of the types to do everything you can when you put your mind to it. You've got decent Skill, and know the basics more than enough. Go out and get some experience, then challenge me again. I don't want to keep fighting a beefed up baby."
"Go to Hell."
"Already there."
Hajin outstretched his hand, and Sirus shook it firmly. Their banter continued for a little while longer before he left to find the Ivory Tower.
'Time to find some bounties,'