He began to sweat a little as he surged his palms forward. His body temperature had begun to increase at an alarming pace as his palms moved faster, and then faster still. Lightning arced all around his body for a moment then drew inward and flowed toward the rapidly moving palms of his hands. In the space between where his palms struck the air sparks began to fly.
An arc of electricity surged from his right palm to his left with each repetition. Scott began to pant a little. Sweat poured freely down his face. However, he was soon able to maintain the arc of power.
The arc of power was the key to the spell. Mastering the motions would allow him to rapidly strike an opponent while generating an electrical current that would pass through their body. The damage from the electrical component would be low, but it should have a decent chance to paralyze the nervous system. Using his mana to increase the power of the electricity surging through his palms, increased the speed of the strike until the arc of power was completed. Scott was not certain that electricity was really supposed to work that way, but it did in this instance.
He named the spell [Surging Palms] in his mind because he could not think of anything more appropriate at the moment. “I think I’ve got something, but I’m not sure how to make it an official spell.”
“Check the salvation window. You’ll have to continually use the spell pattern you created until you have developed enough proficiency that it becomes automatic.” said Mid.
Scott checked the mirror and sighed loudly. He had no spell yet. “Man I’m beat. I wonder how much mana I used.”
Health and mana were hidden stats in this world for the sake of realism even though there were plenty of fantastic things to see or do. He would only know how badly he was injured by noticing his actual injuries. There was no handy health gauge to distract him from the pain, though he did have health points hidden from his view.
Mana was something that he could feel. It was a quasi-physical presence that responded to his thoughts. He sensed that it had diminished slightly, but not as much as he would have thought. Mostly he was tired from punching the air so much.
“Lie down on the flowers and close your eyes. You’ll regain your strength quickly if you rest here.” replied Mid gently.
Scott looked at her for a moment then quirked his lips. “Not going to cast a sleep spell on me?”
She shook her head. “No, nothing so humorous. Though, I might draw on your face if you fall asleep on your own.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, before he stretched out on the ground and closed his eyes. Training would prove to be quite a bit different in this world. Combining physical and magical abilities was quite difficult. As he began to drift off to sleep, despite the fact that Mid had claimed she would not cast a sleep spell, he thought that perhaps development of an even simpler ability might be in order first.
Scott awakened a short while later, refreshed and ready to try again. In this place outside the actual world of ARS, restoring health and mana was much easier.
“That was a nice little nap…”
“Wasn’t it, though? If you lie down in this field anywhere, you’ll go to sleep and heal at a rapid rate.”
“This is a little harder without being able to see my health and mana.” said Scott before rotating his shoulders experimentally. There was no stiffness. His short rest had completely healed his body and refreshed his mind.
“That’s part of the point. It allows for a more dynamic and realistic world.” said Mid.
“I heard that serious injuries can take weeks to heal through rest alone.”
Mid nodded. “Potions, healing abilities, and the like can drastically reduce the time that it takes to recover. Your natural ability to heal from damage will rely on vitality and skills. The extent of the injuries are an important factor as well.”
Scott checked the salvation mirror since something he remembered something that he had heard from Rhea before reincarnating. “Sweet! Unarmed combat and twilight sorcery increased!”
“The experience pulse must have caught up. Good job.” said Mid.
Experience in this world did not accrue instantaneously. It pulsed slowly and filled invisible experience pools. It was possible to fill those pools and not know it. If that happened someone would waste time and energy if they continued to grind a specific skill or spell. A person’s class level determined how large the various experience pools were, while intellect determined how much experience was absorbed during each pulse.
It all happened behind the scenes. Only things like the development of a headache or becoming incapable of concentrating effectively would give a clue that such a point had been reached. Again, it was to simulate realism.
Those pools of experience were important to remember, as there were actually three of them for his character level. He had pools to fill for skill development, combat actions, and social interaction. He could not simply murder fluffy woodland creatures and rocket up the level ladder. He had to actually interact with the world and develop his skills. In short, he had to live an actual life instead of hunt all of the time.
Luckily, taking and completing quests counted as social interaction. He could work on everything at once if he took on a lot of jobs and spent a little down time afterward hanging out in various places in town.
He could also gain social interaction experience from coming to a personal understanding, or rather mental and emotional growth counted as social experience as well. Expanding his general knowledge of the world through literature and listening to stories could also work. Basically, social experience was acquired during moments of living life outside of skill and combat development.
Scott moved back to his training spot and started to work on developing his spell once more. This field was in a place outside of normal time and space. He could take as long as he needed to develop his initial abilities and no sense of time would actually pass.
He took a moment to calm himself and to begin to control his breathing. With each breath he became more in touch with his inner thoughts. He was able to focus on connecting with the lightning in the world around him and within his soul. It took a moment to recreate the blurring palm strike image he had used before, but once he did the rest of the spell pattern clicked into place. The surge began once more. His palms shot out at a rapid pace.
After a while he started to add his mana to the flow to further empower the spell. The weak skitter of electricity increased in intensity. Soon it became a steady arc of power that snapped and buzzed.
It became obvious after a while, however, that he was missing something in the equation. His aura was what actually maintained the electrical arc. His palms were merely used to maintain circulation of his aura. They were more of a concentration tool at this point that an active part of the spell.
Scott concentrated on the pattern of his spell, the movement of his hands, and the circulation of the lightning. It was not enough. He needed more power, more mana. “Could it be so simple?”
He stopped for a moment and changed tactics. Instead of merely repeating the pattern constantly, he focused entirely on drawing his mana to a single point within his body. In this case, that point was within his chest. He continued to focus on increasing the concentration of mana at that point until he could not draw more, until it became difficult to even hold it there. He could feel some of it start to slip away as his concentration scrambled to keep up with the flow.
A lot of that mana was lost when he tried to split his attention and focus on the lightning energy, and his spell focus. As that mana drifted away in large amounts Scott began to feel strange. The bizarre feeling started as an itch along his spine and a sensation of his body heating up. He ignored it at first, as that was something he had felt before when he had used his new spell for a lengthy time period.
He became alarmed when things rapidly changed. In the space of a few seconds, his fingertips became numb, his vision blurred, and his heart began to beat erratically.
Scott g
asped loudly then clutched at his chest. The rest of the mana that he had drawn erupted outward and flooded his body system. He could not even scream due to the sudden pain overwhelming his senses.
He fell to the ground and gasped like a fish. He could not speak and could barely move. His body could not determine if it was burning hot or freezing cold. Soon, it no longer mattered.
[System Notice]
You have died.
You will resurrect in five minutes. Death penalties will not apply due to your current location.
Please be more careful with your precious life. I am lazy and would prefer not to take your soul to meet my sister in the afterlife. (She has a boyfriend now anyway, but don’t tell her that I told you.)
~ Silence, God of the End
[—]
Scott awoke in a dark, lonely, place. It was not his house on Earth. It was nothing really, just black space with neither light nor sound. He was barely coherent, but the few minutes that he spent in that omni-present darkness were distinctly uncomfortable.
He awoke again, this time with a start and a jerk as he bolted upright. He blinked rapidly then felt at his body.
“Welcome back.” said Mid in an amused tone of voice.
“The hell was that?” he asked.
Before Mid could say anything a little blue screen rose up, surprising the man once more. He had seen many of them in his recent life, but this was something new.
[Achievement Unlocked]
This. Is. ARS.
[—]
There was an image of Scott clutching his chest, a ridiculous look of terror on his face, positioned below the apparent achievement. “What the hell is this?”
Mid laughed musically. “You gained your first achievement.”
“Achievement?”
“Yes, you died doing something stupid so you earned the achievement: This. Is. ARS.” said Mid, as though that really explained anything.
“This… Are those worth anything?”
“They’re just fun things that people like to collect. You only get bragging rights for them.” she said.
“So, only fun. No stat boosts or anything?” asked Scott. He was aware of the concept of achievements. A lot of games had such a system. He just hoped he would get something out of his first death other than a goofy picture of himself clutching his chest in terror.
“That’s why they show up on a menu screen. They can be turned on or off, though they are still earned regardless of that fact.”
Another thought occurred to him then. “I’m naked?”
“Oh yes.” said Mid with a mischievous grin.
Scott nodded slowly, his thoughts had already turned to what had happened. “Why did I die?”
Mid stared at him. “You don’t know?”
“No, if I did I wouldn’t need to ask that question.”
“Ah, that’s right. You spent so much time on the casual server where everything is done through system assistance that you never really learned how magic works.” said Mid. “It’s a common problem.”
“OK, so what’s the solution to that common problem?”
“Time and training. You might also want to stop charging your mana as high as you did. There is no possible way that you can hold that much power while trying to cast an incomplete spell.”
“I killed myself because I overloaded my body with mana?” he asked.
“Yes, you fried your nervous system and your organs failed. You probably developed a lot of internal burns and bled profusely to go with it. Go see for yourself.” Mid pointed to an object nearby and Scott turned to look at it.
His eyes widened. “Shit, it’s me.”
“Oh yes, that is the well-cooked corpse that you left behind. When you are resurrected outside of a holy place, or a low-quality resurrection spell is used, a new body is generated in the closest system designated holy place.” said Mid.
"Is it really resurrection if I get a new body?" he asked slowly.
"What's life without a little arbitrary whimsy?" she asked lightly. "In order to restore your old body, the one doing the restoration would have had to use either an extremely intricate resurrection spell, or multiple lesser spells."
"Why?" he asked.
"Dear childe, look at your corpse."
Scott walked over to the overdone corpse of his former life. His body was a mass of bruises and cuts, the eyes were a disturbing ruin, and his fingernails had fallen off for some reason. His corpse had an appearance similar to what he believed he would look if he had been treated like a piece of link sausage that was tossed into a microwave.
“That’s just morbid.” he said.
"It's also extensive damage. A healer would need to protect your body from being possessed by spirits, heal the damage to the extent that it can be re-invigorated, call your spirit from the beyond, reinitiate the silver cord that connects-" Mid rattled off a list of things that a healer would have to do to resurrect his corpse on the spot and Scott drew a mental blank. It sounded like a lot of work.
"So, basically, resurrection is easier if the one doing it simply casts a spell to have a new body prepared?" asked Scott.
"Absolutely. It is mostly used by priest or monk type characters with a divine connection. Basically, the system just generates a new body for the deceased's soul to inhabit, and the resurrecting party loots the previous corpse."
"Corpse looting..." Scott muttered. This was all a convenient way to force people to traipse through dangerous areas to try and regain their stuff after they died! Unless there was a dedicated individual in a party who can resurrect the dead, there was no point in even bothering with a corpse run as anyone else would just take what they wanted from the person they had resurrected.
That was the major reason behind the fact that player killing was more common on the classic server. There was no system in place to protect your items. If a person was killed, the killer could loot them with impunity and all in the name of realism.
“You might want to loot your corpse dear. I don’t mind seeing your business, but my cute little sister might become jealous.” said Mid while eyeing the imagery before her.
Scott closed his eyes. That was right, he did feel a refreshing breeze at the moment.
He bent down, and quietly ignored Mid’s sweetly proclaimed, “Oh goodness.” He then set about stripping his corpse of valuables. He was thoroughly disgusted by what he saw after pulling his pants off.
“Oh god. I am not putting those things back on.” Scott turned away from the ruination that his underwear barely kept in check. He had lost all control of his bowels and bladder during his idiotic death.
Mid chuckled. “A soldier going commando, such a rarity.”
Scott could not help but laugh at the silliness of that comment. He put on his simple noob clothes. They were plain white items which consisted of a cotton tunic, loose cotton pants, cotton socks, and a pair of cream colored shoes that were not made of cotton in any form. The cotton underwear had been left in place due to extenuating circumstances. None of his current items were clean, nor had they been before his death. However, they were far more tolerable than the underwear. He then turned to face Mid. “Alright, guess I’m ready to try again.”
“Take your time dear. I’m enjoying myself.” she grinned at him then leaned against her staff.
“I bet you are.” he said with a smile.
Scott stepped away from his corpse then took a deep breath. He winced immediately afterward. “Damn.”
He moved away from his corpse to find a more pleasant location. His old body had started to stink, though the scent that assailed his nostrils had mostly been from what his old cotton underwear had held at bay.
Mid laughed at his plight for a moment. The situation was too funny.
Now that a decent distance had been gained from his former body, Scott was able to try again. He could not die for good here, so it was best to work out the kinks in his magical knowledge before he left. The same sort of process would happen
for Ero and Herbert as well. The three of them were separated for the duration of the opening tutorial, but they would all arrive in ARS proper together at the same time. By the time they stepped into the world for real, they would know exactly what they needed to do in order to use their skills and abilities.
He began to center himself and focus on breath control once more. He had died before because he had taken on too much, too soon. This time he decided to try increasing the mana charged and stored in small increments.
Scott centered the mana in his chest once more, and drew on just enough to maintain the energy stored there. He then connected with the lightning element and began the process of surging his energies once more.
The twilight master experimented with several things. He tried to create the surging palm spell pattern first and then shoved the mana into the spell. That had resulted in an agonized scream as his arms sped forward uncontrollably. He had been forced to lie down and rest to restore his torn muscles and ligaments to good health.
After he recovered, he tried a similar tactic. Except, instead of dumping the mana into his spell pattern all at once, he released it in small increments. The results were better, but a bit lackluster.
He tried a few other things. Most efforts lead to results that were nothing special. A few, not nearly few enough, resulted in extreme pain.
Eventually, he hit on a worthy thought. What if he focused on using the mana in the same way as the lightning? Instead of a solid knot of concentrated mana, he would focus on sending it along his arms. The worst thing that could happen was that he might die horribly. It was worth trying.
Scott drew on his mana and concentrated it within his chest for a moment then began to strike the air with his palms without connecting to the lightning. As he punched the air, he focused his mana in a slow circulating pattern that mimicked the arcing lightning. It was much easier to manage as he did not need to keep his hands moving at a high rate of speed. The mana in his body wanted to circulate, to flow. It was natural to move instead of sit in one spot.
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