With the bombshell about shadow magic still lurking in his thoughts Ezekiel chose to leave the city limits for now and go to the edge of the territory so that only players would see his spells.
He went out of his way to avoid farming experience near roads or anything that looked like a path since he wanted to avoid being seen by the npcs.
This much effort made it harder to level up as efficiently as before but he knew he had to do this.
Now that he was in a safer place he also knew that he could be more frugal with his free stats so he began to save them.
He hunted alone which made players try to approach him but after the words of the human npc before he chose to ignore most of the players questions or requests.
With how often he ignored players he felt like he would inevitably make enemies.
He just had to catch up to the average player level which he had learned was currently lv35.
As the sun began to set on the second day within the game he was satisfied with the results.
~~~~~~~~~~
Belial
Mage lv23. (Novice)
Shadowfire Devil
Affinity: 32% fire, 37% shadow
Mana Core: 0% fire, 0% shadow
Strength: 5
Vitality: 5
Agility: 91
Wisdom: 134 -> 140
Intelligence: 134 -> 140
Free stats: 24
Bloodline: child of the void.
Titles: n/a
Skills: Mana Control lv2 (E), Mana Sense lv9 (A), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E)
Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N)
Spells:
Mana Bolt lv1 (E)
Mana Burst lv1 (A)
Fire Bomb lv9 (E)
Fire Bolt lv4 (E)
Shadow Bolt lv9 (E)
Shadow Burst lv6 (A)
~~~~~~~~~~
His shadow bolt would soon move to the next tier as well as his fire bomb.
He was itching to spend his free points to make himself faster but he knew he had to wait.
At this stage he had not explored gear... at all.
He was not sure if gear had any stat requirements to use and now that he was getting his stats so unevenly distributed he was worried that if he did not have the strength or vitality necessary he may not be able to use gear if he got it.
With the way he was leveling up he felt like his affinity should be trained again soon so he went out of his way to begin.
He did not start with any money unlike most games and he was not sure why so he just found a place within the walls that he could potentially hide.
The thought of sleeping under a house like some rat made him upset but he tried to look at it as more of a wandering sage that sought out shelter.
As he was walking around the area an elderly goblin woman stopped him.
"Ey, ya lost boy?"
He was practically caught in the act, a few seconds later and she might have seen him trying to sneak behind her home like some kind of thug.
"Whats wrong, cat got yer tongue?"
She was cackling a bit like some kind of witch.
He had noticed that a lot of the goblins both player and npc spoke with a weird accent that was often raspy and with a slight lisp.
When this old woman laughed he could guess why now.
Razor sharp teeth like fangs filled her mouth which must be quite tough to speak with when the tongue scraped against them.
"Sorry ma'am i waa just trying to find an inn for the night."
A truly bad lie but if she learned he was an otherworlder then she might just believe he was stupid enough to not know the location of any inns.
She leaned closer to him and frowned before sniffing at his body.
"Ya smell like fire and death, how bout this."
She waddled a few feet away and opened the door to a large shop near her home.
"Ya help me make a few things and ill let ya spend the night in here, i got a spare cot for apprentices ya can use."
As he entered the shop behind her and celebrated his good luck he frowned at what was in the shop.
A large cauldron sat over an even larger furnace that had a set of steps leading up to the top.
"Its hard to find a devil willin ta give some mana to enhance a potion. The bastards are always high and mighty!"
She began to light the fire while grumbling to herself.
"Magic bastards always actin superior to witchdoctors."
Once the fire was burning hot and steady she motioned him up.
"Now since ya just got here otherworlder ill let ya cultivate ya affinity in here, just remember ya gotta put yer blood into a bowl when I say so."
She brought out a silver bowl that seemed to have been modified with a spout at the bottom.
"When i tell ya to i want ya to cut yerself somewhere and put yer affinity and mana into the blood before you let it fall into the bowl."
He was confused but clearly this woman knew how to teach someone as she guided him to use his mana sense to watch how it was done.
To infuse blood with mana and an element for the mana it required you to use mana control to guide the mana into an area near the skin but not quite there so it would not leak out.
Using affinity was obvious but by holding the mana there when the cut was made the blood that flowed out actually kept the mana within it!
"Now boy, dont be telling no one bout this ya hear? I can smell ya shadow so if you go exposin blood magic ill take ya with me."
She eyed him calmly while watching him try it for himself.
"Blood magic? What can it do?"
She seemed taken aback for a moment before cackling far louder than before.
"Oh you are just a curious lil shit aint ya? Ok ill tell ya."
She began to explain while he bled into the bowls, one for fire and the other for shadow.
"Blood magic be an outlawed magic. Just like shadow magic be outlawed because of how it works, blood magic be outlawed because people see it as barbaric!"
He stopped bloodletting when he began to feel light headed and sat back to pay attention.
"Blood magic be used to enhance the art of physical magics, enchantments, spell craft, alchemy, if it takes mana to do then blood magic can make it better!"
She was smiling like a mad woman now.
"Now while ya cultivating ya affinity ima give ya a potion to recover ya blood, it wont heal ya but it will give ya body a chance to replenish what it lost."
He nodded and drank the potion he was given before sitting down by the furnace to cultivate.
While doing so he noticed that the speed was lower than in the forge for obvious reasons but he wanted to grow stronger no matter what.
So he began to cultivate.