Feeling the bond all I get is amusement. "I think she is laughing at you."
The elf looks surprised for a second before she starts to giggle a little. It builds into a full laugh and I can't help but join in after a moment. When our laughter dies down Azzaria takes the meat off the fire and hands it out to all of us, Thia first. She seasoned it so it isn't as bland as what we were having before the village. When done, I get the Mana Barrier spell book from my bag in the tent. Now that I am level 7 it's time to learn a little defense. I read it and the book turns to dust.
You have successfully learned the spell Mana Barrier
The description from the book doesn't show the mana cost or other information so I check it out in my Grimoire.
Mana Barrier: Creates a barrier of mana that protects the user from damage. The amount of damage the barrier can absorb is determined by the user's INT and Neutral Magic level. Duration: 1 Min. Cooldown: 30 sec. Range: Self/Touching. Cost: 25 MP.
It's good to know that it has a cooldown and duration. That could have left me vulnerable if I didn't know to pay attention. My mana has recharged a good amount since I took care of the Ward Stone so I decide to test out the barrier before bed. Grabbing my staff I activate it and no sooner does a bluish tinted clear barrier appear than a rock bounces off, right in front of my face. Startled by the sudden attack I jerk backward and nearly fall off the log I am sitting on. I windmill my arms and regain my balance.
Azzaria burst out laughing and tries to speak to me "I knew ... that ... you were ... going ... to ... try that."
After a few seconds I can't help but laugh a little too, though not so uproariously as Azzaria. After a minute we both calm down. "OK, you got me. At least I know it works though." Now that the joking is done my barrier has worn off so I reach over and touch Timbre, who is sitting next to the log and me. I cast the spell again and observe the barrier created. It sits a inch or two off Timbre and moves with her. Sticking my still greasy hand in front of her she sniffs and then licks it. "Looks like it's one way so that it stops incoming attacks but not outgoing. I was worried that it would stop me from attacking when in use."
"Joking aside, it's good to test it before you're in combat. We're going to be up early. Get some sleep." With that said, Azzaria heads off to her tent and I head to mine with my companions. Note to self: Get a bigger tent. I did not account for extra guests, and Timbre insists on sleeping next to me. She is warm, but the three of us take up the whole thing and there is no room to move around.
*******
The next morning I extricate myself from the tent to a giggling elf, and stretch a little. "Remind me to get a bigger tent next time we are back to the village" I tell her as I walk up to the fire next to her. "Good morning." She looks over to me from heating up some breakfast "Good morning." We eat quickly and get moving early. Throughout the day we are fighting one after the other. We use the same tactics from the day before with only one issue, a possessed goblin was nearby when we attacked a possessed kobold. We killed the kobold without an problems, but the Goblin showed up right after and caught us by surprise. All of us except for Timbre, who tackled it, allowing us to recover and kill the goblin and beetle like usual. At first it was an hour or so before we would find a new one to kill, but it got shorter. By the end of the day it is getting dark and we must have killed a dozen or more.
I have been saving the messages for when we set up camp. There were too many encounters throughout the day that I didn't feel comfortable trying to take care of those things when I could be attacked. Now though, we have set a camp and the Ward stone has been used. I know that there is plenty to take care of. I sit on a nearby rock and open my messages.
Neutral Magic has reached lvl 4
LEVEL UP! Your Familiar Thia has increased in level by 1. Thia is now level 4. As your Familiar she gets 5 points to apply to her Stats and 2 talent points. Thia currently has 5 undistributed SP and 2 undistributed TP. You can distribute these from your familiar's status page. Continue to increase your Familiar's level to follow the path of true power. Fight for the RIGHT to survive!
Your familiar's skill: Zapp has reached lvl 4
Staff Mastery has reached lvl 3
Your Familiar's skill: Screech has reached lvl 2
Woodcraft has reached lvl 4
LEVEL UP! You have increased your level by 1. You are now level 8. As a Void Human you get 6 points to apply to your Stats. As you are a Mage +1 INT +1 WIS are allocated. You currently have 4 undistributed SP. You can distribute these from your status page. Continue to increase your level to follow the path of true power. Fight for the RIGHT to survive!
Identify has reached lvl 5
Mana Manipulation has reached lvl 4
LEVEL UP! Your Familiar Thia has increased in level by 1. Thia is now level 5. As your Familiar she gets 5 points to apply to her Stats and 1 talent point. Thia currently has 10 undistributed SP and 3 undistributed TP. You can distribute these from your familiar's status page. Continue to increase your Familiar's level to follow the path of true power. Fight for the RIGHT to survive!
Your Familiar Thia has reached its milestone of lvl 5. Thia will now age to an Adolescent Thunderbird.
After reading the last message a light appears to my left drawing my attention. The light is from Thia on the ground. She is glowing with a golden light that matches her feathers, and arcs of lightning are dancing across her skin. The light gets brighter until I can't see her and I have to look away. After a minute I can tell the light is dimming down again. I turn to look and blink away the spots in my eyes so that I can view Thia's new form properly.
Thia is no longer covered in the fluffy down feathers she had before, but has a full set of normal feathers. The size of a small bird of prey, she has the curved beak to match. Talons are another feature that I can see now too. Thia starts to look at herself before she turns to me "I think I can fly now." Speaking out loud so that Azzaria can understand I respond "You should try it if you think you can fly. You could really help scout for us." Reaching down I hold out my arm, which Thia steps up onto so that I can lift her up. She takes a couple flaps then launches off my arm.
She does a few circles around the camp getting better as she goes. I just sit and watch her before I raise my arm again and give her a mental signal that it is time to land. Swooping in, she flairs her wings when she gets near to slow herself down and grabs my proffered arm. After settling in she wobbles a little making me think she might fall over. I reach out with the other hand and steady her.
"Are you alright Thia?" I say in my mind and out loud.
"I'm fine, just a little dizzy and tired. The change took a lot out of me."
"You should rest then."
I lay her down in the back of the tent, she was asleep before I even got to it. Walking back to the rock, I start thinking of what to do with Thia's SP and TP. Now that she can fly, she will probably be away from us more, where she is at higher risk. I will do a little to make her tougher then. With that in mind I allocate 3 of her SP to VIT. One goes into AGI for the speed and another into STR to help with the new flight. Last 5 SP are split between her mental stats since she will be a caster, 2 in INT and 3 in WIS. Still thinking of making her a little tougher to kill I spend a talent point in her Enhanced Physique talent.
The first tier of the talent grants a 10% increase in Physical resistance. The next tier will make that 20%. What distracts me though is that when I entered the fifth talent point the fog cleared from the next level of the tree. I can now see what comes next, and I am excited about a few things. The Enhanced Physique has physical talents made for attacking and defense. For this I am only interested in the defense. Steel Feathers is a talent that changes the feathers in hardness and conductivity. This increases the physical resistance more and adds extra damage to lightning.
The next talent in line with the Familiar Bond was Mana Transfer. Like it sounds, it will allow me and Thia to send mana to one another. The first tier makes it a 2:1 ration fo
r the transfer, but with it having another tier after that I hope it will be a 1:1 ratio. There are a couple things under the Enhanced Speed branch but I know I have to get the Ride the Lightning talent for Thia. It will give her the skill, allowing her to change into lighting to travel a short distance as fast as electricity.
So many good options, but I need to plan this as best I can. Most important to me now though is the defense. Lamenting the use of those points, I add the remaining 2 TP to Enhanced Physique, bringing the Physical resistance from it to 30%. That also opens the Steel Feathers talent that I want for her. All of the lower talents on the tree need the previous one above it to be maxed to have it available. One thing I am hoping for is that the feathers can be used to craft, or are worth something if we sell them at least. I am not going to pull out her feathers or anything but she has to lose some of them sometime. Right?
Next I have my own points to distribute. Holding onto them won't help me so it is best to allocate them when I have the chance. After all, dead men can't allocate points. At least I don't think they can. I am new here so I might be wrong. Best not to find out though. I place 1 SP into VIT and WIS and the last 2 into INT for the larger mana pool. With the increase in my mana regeneration from my Mana Vacuum ability I can increase my power and mana pool more while maintaining a decent regeneration. Besides, it looks like I will be getting the talent to share mana with Thia.
Done with my status I turn to Azzaria. "These constant battles are good for my level but it is exhausting. Are you getting anything out of this with your higher level?"
"I am, but very little. I was close to advancing though so today pushed me over the edge. I am now level 13."
"Congratulations on that. So far it hasn't been too hard to level, but I have a feeling that is going to change."
"Yes it will. The normal experiences one faces growing up counts until level 10. By adulthood most people reach 10 or 11 and have a profession. After that only combat and quest experience counts and is why most people stay below 15. For those who want to further advance their profession they usually hire a group of adventurers or guards to help them fight and get to 15 for their professional specialization."
"So most people don't even get a second subclass?"
"Usually city guards are at 20 or so. Soldiers are also around that give or take, unless they are officers or some other special group. After level 10 the experience requirements get much higher and again after 20, so it takes a lot of work or a job that keeps you fighting."
"So you call it experience? That is what it was called in the games from Earth that I told you about. Does anyone else get higher than 15?"
"Yes, we call what you gain towards your next level experience because that is how it seems to work. Doing more work in a fight gives you experience fighting and the increase in your status reflects it like so. That is also how we explain the slow increase when not fighting during childhood." She pauses for a second, thinking about my second question. "There are adventurers that can get higher in their level, but the danger of such things means that few make it far past 20, and barely any to 30. The ones that make it that high are often recruited for high military positions."
"Is there an adventurer's guild, a place where you can pick up requests and such?"
"There is and I would like to join it, but our small village isn't big enough to have one. They don't discriminate by race, but the closest one is in the human kingdom. Slavers aren't allowed to capture guild members, but as a slave they can just take you to a new city where no one knows you're an adventurer."
"I would like to sign up as an adventurer as well. Maybe we could go together in the future. First I have to complete this quest from the council. From what we have been seeing with increased numbers for the enemies, I think I will need to level more. If I can get my first subclass then maybe we can do this." Azzaria gives me a nod of agreement before we eat a cold dinner and go to bed. This time I sleep under the stars and moons because the tent is crowded with Timbre and Thia. Staring at the two moons as they crest the tree line of our little clearing I think about the mission we are on. Hopefully I can get something useful for a subclass to make a difference, because I'm getting a bad feeling about the numbers we have seen.
The next morning we get up and head out after some stretching and a cold breakfast. On the way we kill a couple more of the level 9 possessed like normal before we come across something a little different.
Possessed Goblin Corpse, lvl 10, Brawler. HP:100%
This is the first one higher than level 9 that we have seen, and it has a subclass. It looks like it's a melee class though, so we line up like usual. I start us off by raising my staff a little, pointing at the goblin and firing off my Mana Bolt. The cone of magical energy zips forward at my command. It strikes the goblin right in the shoulder from behind, but unlike his weaker counterparts he doesn't stumble. He sways a little but quickly turns towards me. He lets loose a quick snarl before his skin darkens a little, taking on a reddish hue, and he charges me. I let loose another Mana Bolt and Azzaria fires as well but our shots aren't causing it to fall or even slow, though they still cause damage. Even Thia's Screech doesn't effect it.
When it's about 10 feet away Timbre lunges forward to intercept, but in her jump she is unable to adjust as it dodges to its right. Since Azzaria is on my right its dodge brings it to my left causing me to block her line of sight. That doesn't stop her because I feel something wiz by my ear and see an arrow sprout from the goblins arm. I am not sitting idly by while this is happening. When the goblin dodged Timbre I started my Mana Barrier spell, so when it pounces on me with a clenched fist drawn back I'm ready for it. The goblin punches as hard as he can but his clenched fist bounces off the barrier.
Not expecting the resistance the goblin falls on its back. Before it gets up though, I step to the left and an arrow pins its hand to the ground. I swing my staff to hit it in the other arm while Thia gets off a couple Zapps, yellow lightning arcing from where she landed on a branch. Then Timbre is back and she looks pissed that it dodged. Coming from behind the downed Goblin she bites the whole head before shaking it viciously from side to side. There are some pops of snapping vertebrae and the Possessed Goblin Corpse dies. Timbre immediately releases it to drop on the ground in front of us. She sits next to me once again and Thia takes care of the beetle that comes out, this one a level 2. We finish looting the few coins off of it and I ask "Why wasn't it affected by Thia's Screech?" My elf friend answers "It used a skill. You saw when its skin darkened. I think it was some sort of berserk like skill. It probably made the Brawler stronger and faster as well as immune to normal control type skills and spells." Thinking about it a little I respond "OK, new plan for us then." So I told them what I came up with.
An hour later, and a few more of the possessed under level 10 killed, we get another level 10 brawler. We line up the same way, except Timbre is in front. She is now level 8 since I am, so she is even tougher than when her pack fought the Stone Tortoise. She also is the one to start the fight. We've been using Thia to fly and scout a little so we are approaching all the monsters from behind. Timbre sneaks up on the unsuspecting goblin and lunges forward clamping down on the leg of our opponent. Like before, she shakes and the leg breaks. Just like I explained to her, she drops the leg to come stand next to me again with her hackles raised. The brawler is trying to stand up for a charge, but the broken leg keeps collapsing so it starts crawling for us. From there it's much like the others, with Azzaria pinning it down and Thia and I bombarding it from afar.
"Let's loot it and take a break to restore our mana. With all the fighting we are doing it won't be long before we run into more." I reach over to Timbre and run my hands through her fur. "Good girl." I scratch behind her ear where she likes it and she leans into my hand. Azzaria loots our defeated foe and joins us for a few minutes.
After our break it's only noon so we have plenty of daylight left. We kill a few more level 9s and 10s like we practiced, with only
minor injuries to Timbre and I. Timbre got hit by a brawler that got her before she broke its leg. I got hit when a Possessed Goblin Thief slipped by to clip me with a knife before I got my barrier up. Mid afternoon came our next challenge, a group. It only had two in it, but from what Thia told me they were walking a specific route. "It's a patrol" I tell Azzaria. "Thia has been watching them and they are taking the same route back and forth. There are two of them, one looks like the level 9 goblins we fought but the second one is a Kobold that seems to be leading the other. Another thing, the second one has a bow." We are stopped a good distance from where they are so we can talk. Looking over to the beautiful elf I see her thinking with an adorable look on her face. Her eyes squint and her nose wrinkles a little above her pursed mouth. I look up from her soft cherry lips to see that the wrinkle is gone from her nose and her eyes are focused on me now. Oops, I got busted staring again. I can feel my cheeks heat up a little and I look down.
A couple seconds later she takes pity on me and starts talking. "The ones with a subclass do act smarter than the ones with lower levels. That isn't saying much since those were practically zombies. Still, they aren't that smart. I bet you can keep it focused on you if you shoot it first, leaving the rest of us to take care of the other." I bet she is right. Plus it will give me more of a chance to practice with the barrier. "Alright let's do it" I say. I tell Thia to circle above while we move to a spot along their route for an ambush. When they come in sight I am waiting for them and hit the archer dead center in the scaly chest before he can react. I cast my barrier right after to take the first of its arrows while the goblin charges. About half way to me Thia hits the charging goblin with Screech, causing it to trip. The kobold snarls and starts to turn to the new threat of my three companions, only to take another Mana Bolt to the chest.
Meanwhile, Timbre is savaging the downed goblin's leg while Thia and Azzaria bombard it from afar. The kobold and I exchange a few more shots and I can see the barrier crack a little. A couple more shots and the barrier is spider webbed with cracks, but it is off its cooldown so I renew it. By this time the goblin is dead and all of us hit the kobold one final time before he joins his companion on the ground, where Thia cleans up the beetles that appear. More loot, still only coppers, but it is starting to add up with all the enemies we are facing. Speaking of "Azzaria, I am getting worried about the numbers we are getting." Nodding her head that she agrees "Yeah, me too. Hopefully we are close or there is no way we would be able to take out the horde that is sure to be there."
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