by Sean Oswald
Health: 560 (300)
Regen Rate: 2.6/hour
Fury: 7.8
Regen Rate: 2.6/hour
ENDURANCE: 22
Stamina: 6.6
Regen Rate: 2.2/hour
Needed Rest: -22%
INTELLIGENCE: 15
Mana: 150
Spell Damage: +30%
WISDOM: 13 (12, +15%)
Mana Regen Rate: 195/hour
Faith: 3.9
Regen Rate: 1.3/hour
CHARISMA: 12 (12, +5%)
Social Skills: 24%
Teamwork: 3.6
Regen Rate: 1.2/hour
LUCK: 3
+3% chance to avoid catastrophic effects
+3% improvement on chance of loot drops
+3% improvement on quality of loot drops
As he stood up on his feet and adopted his fighting stance again, he said, “Sorry Master. I just thought of something from home. It won’t happen again.”
A grim expression came across Daichi’s face. “No it won’t.”
What followed was hours of agony. It wasn’t like being beaten by his academy mates. There were no broken bones, but he was sure there would be plenty of bruises. Master Daichi only accepted perfection in whatever stance or posture he was instructing and had a firm hand in showing how he needed to do it. In the end, he lost track of time, and only when he consistently failed to be able to put one foot in front of the other was he finally allowed to collapse on the ground.
“We will take two hours for you to eat and rest. Then see if you can continue after that.”
The elf didn’t say anything more to him–no compliments on his hard work, no praise for his improvement. Oh well, what could he expect.
After an hour passed, the tome on Dave’s lap slammed shut of its own volition.
Tome of Mystical Enhancement has closed. Exposure for more than 1 hour risks possible injury including but not limited to: insomnia, blindness, insanity, or death.
Initial Phase Integration: 2%
Well this was gonna be a long process if he only made 2% per day, and he didn’t know many phases there were. Oh, and the possible side effects? He shook his head and realized that almost every drug advertised on TV back home had those same kinds of side effects. At least incontinence and impotence weren’t possible side effects to using the book.
Dave glanced over at his son’s training. It looked brutal, but when he had asked Daichi to train Jackson, the monk’s only condition was that he be allowed to train Jackson as he would any other student. Dave trusted the elf to not allow any lasting harm to come to his son, and if a bit of rough training protected him from rough treatment back at the academy, then he would accept it.
Gathering his focus, he pulled out the other book he had brought, namely the spell tome he had received from the elf. A smile crossed his lips as he realized it was time to learn some Tier 4 spells. The first one he decided to learn was Negate Magic. It appeared to be an upgraded version of Emily’s cancel magic and would likely serve to deal with any casters that they came in contact with because it would work against any spell up to Tier 5.
It felt like only moments had passed as his head jerked back up, and he felt the knowledge settling into his mind. New neurons were firing and pathways forming to allow for him to be able to use the spell.
Negate Magic: Nullify magic in many different ways. May be used on effects up to Tier 5. Has following modes:
Counter an uncast spell as it is being cast. Success Rate is almost 99% against an equally powerful caster. Level, Intelligence, and Spell Mastery may all go into considering the relative chance of success. Range: 100’+2’/level
Mana: 50
Cast Time: 4 seconds.
May be used to negate a specific spell which is already in effect. Base success rate is 85%.
Range: 50’+1’/level
Mana: 50- but may pump to increase power.
Cast Time: 4 seconds.
May be used to suppress the magic of an enchanted item. Base success rate is 50%.
Range: 30’
Mana: 50
Cast Time: 4 seconds
Duration: 1 hour+10 minutes/level
May be used to create an anti-formation zone. Radius: 1’/level. Existing spells or enchanted items are not affected by the zone. The zone absolutely prohibits the formation of a new spell within its area.
Range: self
Mana:
Variable: the zone may be charged with as much mana as you can place into the spell form
Duration: spell lasts for 1 month or until the zone has suppressed spells with a mana cost equal to 150% of the mana used to create the zone.
Dave laughed. He didn’t know how often he would use it, but it seemed like a perfect mage killer if you could prepare it ahead of time. Then, thinking about the oncoming goblin army, he did have another thought about how to use it. That would bear some more consideration.
The one day long hourglass they had brought with them still hadn’t come close to the halfway mark, so he zoned out the noise that the monk and would-be monk were making as they trained and started to focus on the next spell he wanted to learn.
Once again, he came back to himself. His mind a flurry of new activity. He probably should have learned the other spells first, but this one was the most obvious damaging spell, so he chose it.
Frost Storm: Creates a large area attack which ramps up in effect the longer that a target remains within the area of effect.
The first tick that the spell is in effect the temperature drops in the area of effect to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. All creatures take 20 cold damage.
The second tick the temperature drops to -60 degrees Fahrenheit and spinning snowflakes of razor-sharp ice begin to fill the area. All creatures in the area take 30 cold damage from the air and 10-30 cold dmg + 10-30 slashing damage from the snowflakes.
The third and fourth ticks, the temperature drops to -80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the number of spinning snowflakes doubles. Damage increases to 40 cold from the air and 20-50 cold dmg + 20-50 slashing damage from the snowflakes.
During all 4 ticks and for 10 ticks afterwards, visibility and movement rate is reduced by a percent equal to the temperature. For the following 10 ticks, the only damage caused is the 40 cold from the air.
Creatures within the AoE have a 10%/tick of receiving the chilled debuff.
Range: 1000’+10/level
AoE: 10’/level radius
Mana: 400 mana.
Checking the sand in the hourglass, it looked like he had been at this for somewhere between eight to ten hours. Dave freely admitted he still wasn’t an expert in reading time like this. He missed the digital read out on his phone from home, and the readings on his character sheet were affected by the time dilution. He wanted to make the most of this time, so he decided to learn one more spell before he took a break. He saw that Jackson and Daichi were still at it, although they might very well have taken a break while he was lost in learning one of the spells. So now, he had to figure out which spell to learn next. A part of him figured he should take one of the buffs, but that arrogant voice within him laughed, and he just couldn’t make himself prioritize that. This is what he had other people for–to help empower him.
Focusing again on his personal combat prowess, he picked and began learning the next spell.
Inertial Burst: Causes a complete reversal of inertia. Moving objects or creatures will stop moving while unmoving objects or creatures will be moved. This results in varying amounts of damage to the object/creature based upon the speed it was moving at. With creatures, only the totality of the body is affected, not the internal processes. All objects which are not moving instantly move away from you at a speed equal to 1 mph/level. The motion stops when the object hits the edge of the spell. This may have interesting and unpredictable effects upon larger objects such as rooted trees.
Area of Effect is a dome centered on you with a radius of 15 feet
Casting Time: 3
seconds
Duration: 6 seconds
Mana: 100
Cool-Down: 10 minutes.
Dave just chuckled. Anytime that Eloria described something as interesting and unpredictable was certainly a time for caution. Now it was time for a nap. His head felt like one of those clown cars where twenty people cram into a space meant for four.
Jackson saw his dad laying on one of the benches asleep. Must be nice. He had already had one training session, a rest, and another training session and was now onto another rest. Yet, it wasn’t like it was a complete loss. He was learning quite a bit. If he managed to retain half of this, it would make him a much more competent fighter. How he moved, and how he was able to put energy behind punches and kicks was being transformed.
His ring of streamlined motion definitely was helping him; he could feel himself becoming more efficient. There was less wasted movement. People often thought that wasted movement in a punch was simply a discussion of arm angle or a linear punch versus a haymaker. He could now see how much more there was to it. What had been at first imperceptible, at least to him, was the ways in which his body rose while moving forward for a step, punch, or kick. All of that motion that lifted his body up instead of driving straight forward was not only wasted but actually harmful. It deprived his motion of power, slowed his motion, and presented a higher profile that was more susceptible to attack and less balanced.
Daichi began by having him imagine a simple plane of clear glass above his head. As he moved, he had to be careful not to let his head touch the imaginary glass. If his progress was not fast enough, he would often find his Master’s palm walloping down on the top of his head. He soon found that controlling his breathing was as important to controlling his motion as the simple use of his muscles. A breath at the wrong part of a movement would cause him to rise or fall incorrectly. It would make him wobble or shift his weight to one side or the other. His Master demanded precision in all these things.
As much as he was learning from Daichi, he knew that he would never be able to retain all of these lessons. Less than one and half days of training, no matter how intensive, was simply not enough to drill lifelong habits into him. Jackson said as much. “Master, I feel like I am learning so much but worry that I will forget your lessons or perhaps modify them in my own mind allowing imperfections to take root.”
Daichi smiled. A mere twelve hours of training, and this boy had taken to using the proper turn of phrase and was sounding like one of his true students. He had real potential. It was a true shame that he had to be sent off to this human academy. Yet, the old monk had served nobility and royalty all his life. He knew that for all their power, they often had less freedom than the average man. “Don’t worry about that now. Worry will simply cloud your mind and prevent you from forming a pure image of that which I teach you. Trust your Master that there is a purpose behind this.”
Jackson nodded and then began sipping from his water and eating some of the rations they had brought along. As he did, he took a moment to examine his gloves. There was definitely something strange about them. He was very thankful to have them, but they seemed to be very odd. The XP on them now read as 517/960. He kept wondering what would happen when they actually leveled up.
All too soon, the rest was over, and it was back to training. As tired as he was, Jackson got up and moved. He didn’t want to waste this time period.
When Dave woke up, he was surprised at how much time had passed. Learning spells must have taken more out of him than he thought. He had been asleep for over six hours if his accounting of the hourglass was correct, and he now had less than 16 hours left before they would have to leave the dungeon and return to town. He had hoped to learn four more spells, but it was looking like he would have to settle for three more. That made his decisions all that much more important.
He looked over the list.
Tier 4: Totem of Spirit, Totem of Stillness, Bone Shatter, Monster’s Physique
Not counting the ones he was unable to learn or the ones that he had discarded, he was down to four spells. Quick reviews of each one’s description told him that the totems were both some type of area effect spell. Spirit seemed to be a mana regeneration and stat buff while stillness was some kind of noise and motion debuff, but he couldn’t completely understand. Bone shatter looked to be the simplest. It was a single target touch attack spell that did exactly what its name implied. Monster’s Physique, on the other hand, was completely baffling. It seemed to be a personal shaping spell and didn’t give the person a complete monster body but did give some attributes a monster might have. He wondered if it was a version of Sara’s class ability just on a limited duration.
With only time to learn a maximum of three spells, he decided again what the simplest and most surefire spell would be, opened the book, and began to focus.
Bone Shatter: Caster must touch target. Whatever bone within the target’s body is touched will be shattered into multiple pieces unless the spell is resisted. The damage and effect will vary based upon the bone that is shattered. Note shattered bones cannot be healed with simple healing spells alone. Resistance is a level based function.
Range: Touch
Cast Time: 24 seconds - note spell may be cast and then shaved up for up to 1 hour for an instantaneous discharge upon the next target touched by designated hand
Mana: 90
Once learned, it worked much as he expected, but there was no time to rest, so he immediately started to learn Totem of Stillness. He decided he had been impressed enough with Tode’s ability to control the battlefield that a debuff would be warranted. His alcoholic cloud could also serve a purpose like that, but having more options was likely a good thing.
Another four hours passed in the blink of an eye. His mind was frazzled, and he felt like he wasn’t sure if he could go on, but he had another tool in his arsenal now.
Totem of Stillness: Summons into being a totem which projects the metaphysical nature of stillness. The totem has no effect upon caster of any member of his immediate party, but all others within the area of influence suffer the following effects:
Reduction in movement and attack speed by 25%
Difficulty with making any sounds. Spells with a verbal component have a 50% chance of fizzling. Even shouts will sound like whispers.
Mana:
Base: 75 + variable
AoE: 20’ radius plus 1’/5 mana spent
Cast Time: 24 seconds + 1 second/5 extra mana spent.
Durability of the Totem:
Toughness: 20+1 per 5 extra mana spent.
Health: 400 + 2/extra mana spent.
As much as Dave wanted to learn another spell, with something like seven hours left and his brain feeling foggy, he didn’t want to risk failing to learn a spell and losing it. So he sat down to eat and try to catch up on some of his thinking. The main thing he wanted to figure out was how to leverage the value of these dungeons. He knew that Steffen and the guild members believed the two dungeons under his control were ways for Eris’ Rise to gain valuable taxation revenue, but he had other thoughts in mind.
First, they were a possible way for him to level up any of the villagers who stuck around after his offer yesterday. All of the defensive planning that his knights and the forest wardens were coming up with would certainly change if he could turn the level zero humans into worthwhile contributors.
Today’s exercise was showing that the dungeons might have an even greater value. The time dilation would allow for training, yes, and some training was necessary, but it was more of a refining process. The basic skills were downloaded into your head when you spent skill points. Certainly, that was enough for those who were not mainly fighters. Yet, the research potential for this time dilation was tremendous. If he could capture it, then he would be able to do years of research in a few months.
Thinking of research made him think about the magicyte crystal that they had won and the orange goop that Mira had collected from the scorched tree sappers
. He had this sense that the substances could be combined in some way to create not just mana batteries to run devices but also mana wiring. He was having visions of being able to bring the Elorian equivalent of electricity to Eris’ Rise. Visions of homes that could be heated or cooled, lit, and even automated danced across his thoughts. There was a ton of research to do. As with so many things since arriving in Eloria, he kept putting it all on the back burner. Maybe, though, the time dilation would give him the chance to work on some of those items.
That of course made him worried. What if he set up labs and workshops here in the entry lobby of the dungeon only to have monsters sent out to destroy them? There had to be a way to work with the dungeon, at least now that it was no longer the tomb of David Nelson. The other dungeon didn’t have a sentient controller, and so it would be easier in many ways, but it was over a day’s travel even at good speeds from town, so it wouldn’t be nearly as practical and would be more susceptible to being cut off by enemies.
No, the more he thought about it, the more he realized this was the perfect place. He just needed to reach a deal with the dungeon. Sara had been able to form one of her special relationships with the dungeon. She said its name was Altracia. That had to imply that there was a certain level of intelligence to the dungeon. So, the negotiator in him started trying to figure out what a dungeon would bargain for. What did a dungeon want? Well, certainly to kill adventurers, but there had to be more to it than that or no dungeon would be sustained for long. Either it would kill all the adventurers who were bold enough to come near it and then starve or it would starve from failing to kill adventurers. So, there must be some other layer to the symbiotic relationship between dungeon and adventurer.
He was half-tempted to go and try to talk to the dungeon on his own. Yet he couldn’t risk it. The dungeon might be Sara’s friend, but he was under no illusion that such a relationship extended any special protection to him. Besides, he couldn’t risk getting stuck in the dungeon. Today was too important of a day in Eris’ Rise. So he decided he would simply need to bring Sara back as an intermediary. Of course, getting Emily to allow him to bring Sara back to the dungeon might be every bit as challenging as trying to talk to the dungeon on his own.