Magic School

by Phoenix Grey

  He didn't even bother trying to pry the carapace off of the next gray beetle he encountered. Azure simple killed it, took the mandible, and moved on. Two more appeared before he saw another shade beetle. Perhaps their numbers were more even than he had first suspected.

  With the gray beetles, he carelessly crushed their carapaces. For the shade beetles, he went for the face stab.

  The small insect expired with a soft crunching sound, its eyes caving in toward each other.

  Defeated Level 7 Shade Beetle. 42XP rewarded.

  Azure picked up the body, feeling that it was much more delicate than the larger gray beetles. Wondering how best to approach, he first tried prying the carapace of with his fingertips. To Azure's surprise, it gave way fairly easily, popping off in one solid sheet, though the mandibles broke in the process.

  You have received the following item:

  Shade Beetle Carapace

  Item Class: Common

  Quality: Average

  Weight: 1.0 kg

  Uses: Alchemy Component, Crafting Component

  “Nice.” He stared at the carapace for a moment in wonder before carefully placing it in his Bag of Holding.

  The next hour was spent in the process of rinse and repeat. Every two kills, Azure would re-cast Woodflesh. There was a shift in the number of gray beetles versus shade beetles, and he was able to fill his quota of the first long before he finished off his ten shade beetles.

  Despite being an Easy quest, there were rewards to killing so many of the weak insects. Azure leveled up his Analyze skill. He was also surprised when he gained a character level. All in all, it had been a great day even though he'd drained himself almost dry of Stamina.

  Shakily, Azure uncorked a Potion of Minor Stamina, just wanting enough to get back to the entrance without passing out from exhaustion. As he walked back, he finally took the time to examine the walls of the cave. There was nothing notable on their surface, but at the base next to where the wall began, a fern-like plant was growing every few yards. Azure bent, running his fingers over the thin, soft leaves before gripping the plant near its roots and giving it a good tug.

  You have harvested:

  Cave Parsley

  Uses: Alchemy component

  Damn. He had really hoped it would be something to restore Stamina.

  A decision had to be made whether Azure was going to spend the rest of his Stamina foraging or use it to go hunting and cook. He'd been subsisting off of Blue Mushrooms all day, and it just wasn't doing it for him. Alchemy components usually weren't worth much anyway.

  Having made his decision, Azure braved the trek back to where he had set up camp the night before, figuring that he already knew it was a safe location. Staying near the mouth of the cave didn't seem like the smartest idea.

  Once he had arrived, he detoured to go hunting, tracking down a wild boar rooting about a hundred yards away. Activating Stealth made a notification pop up.

  Congratulations! The skill: Stealth has reached Level 4. This skill allows you to move silently about your enemies without them noticing. Attacks while in stealth mode will now deal 4% more damage.

  Very nice, Azure thought before quickly refocusing his attention on the hunt.

  A quick shot to the head with an arrow, and the boar fell to the ground.

  Defeated Level 3 Boar. 18XP rewarded.

  There's a lot of meat on this, Azure realized as he slung the dead boar over his shoulder to carry it back to camp. This should last me for a while

  After butchering the animal, he only had enough Stamina left to cook two pieces of it. Burning the first to a crisp, Azure cursed himself. The Cooking skill was way more important than he gave it credit for.

  You have cooked:

  Burnt Boar

  Uses: None. You wouldn't feed this to a troll you were trying to kill. Because the troll would know you were trying to kill it and would likely kill you instead.

  Thankfully, the second piece came out edible. It was enough to fill his stomach and get him through the rest of the night.

  Settling down under the stars, Azure pulled up his character sheet. It was time to assign his points and level a skill.

  Name: Azure

  Race: Human

  Level: 13, 15% of the way to next level

  Health: 254 / 320

  Mana: 105 / 280 (330)

  Stamina: 19 / 300 (330)

  Vitality: 19

  Intelligence: 15 (5)

  Strength: 17 (3)

  Agility: 14

  Dexterity: 14

  Charisma: 11

  Luck: 13

  Skills: Archery Lvl 7; 3% of the way to next level

  Stealth Lvl 4; 0% of the way to the next level

  Analyze Lvl 11; 5% of the way to next level

  Cooking Lvl 5; 58% of the way to next level

  Alchemy Lvl 5; 14% of the way to next level

  Foraging Lvl 11; 89% of the way to next level

  One-Handed Weapons Lvl 9; 32% of the way to next level

  Tracking Lvl 2; 45% of the way to next level

  Two-Handed Weapons Lvl 6; 55% of the way to next level

  Fishing Lvl 3; 0% of the way to next level

  Drinking Lvl 2; 25% of the way to next level

  Land Magic Lvl 3; 23% of the way to next level

  Languages: Common Tongue, Sprite, Goblin-Tongue, Elvish

  Adventurer Rank: E

  Upon seeing his sheet, Azure immediately decided to level Archery again.

  Congratulations! The skill: Archery has reached Level 8. This skill allows you to use a bow and arrow to defeat enemies. Aim strong and true. Bows now do 20% more damage.

  Oh, sweet! Another perk. That made Azure feel like he had chosen wisely.

  Looking at the rest of his stats, he frowned at how dangerously low his Stamina was. Letting it get so bad hadn't been smart, but Azure felt pretty safe in the area. Hopefully, his sense of security wasn't naive. Increasing his Strength would do nothing to add Stamina to what he currently had available. The problem wasn't that Azure needed more Stamina, it was that he didn't have a way to restore it without sleeping. Well, he did have one more Potion of Minor Stamina left, but that was being saved back in case of an emergency.

  Now that Azure was getting stronger, where he allocated his characteristic points seemed a lot less important. He threw one into Vitality so that his Health stats would match the rest. Then he threw another into Luck for funsies. The last, he decided to allocate to Dexterity.

  With that done, Azure closed his character sheet and bedded down for the night, pure exhaustion from the loss of Stamina dragging him into sleep despite the nagging fear that something might try to attack him if it caught him unaware even though there was a fire strongly blazing beside him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  THE REALM – Day 81

  In no hurry the next morning, Azure took his time cooking more of the boar meat, producing two salvageable pieces. He ate one for breakfast and another during his walk back. Wanting to conserve his Stamina, Azure didn't bother foraging. The consistent issue with running low on Stamina made him want to shift his focus toward learning alchemy, specifically the Potion of Minor Stamina.

  When he reached Hawking's School of Land Magic, Azure had a plan. He made several appointments for the next day, including one with Elise to turn in his quest. He also made appointments with the professors of life magic, battle magic, enchanting, and alchemy. It would be a long day, but hopefully, by the time he was done, Azure would know which direction he wanted to go in next.

  With that finished, he returned to Squall's End, not reaching the town until after night had already fallen. Deciding he'd earned a beer for all of his hard work, Azure went to the tavern and was surprised to find Janine there sitting alone. He headed in her direction and took a seat beside her. She was halfway down a pint and had a rosy look to her cheeks.

  “Hey there, buddy,”
he said in greeting.

  “Hey there.” Janine smiled at him.

  “Good day? Bad day?” Usually one or the other was the cause of drinking so much.

  “Okay day.” She flattened her palm in the air and tipped it back and forth like a scale. “Killed some monsters. Gained some experience. Collected some loot. Can’t really complain. What about you?”

  “It’s been a pretty good last few days. Chill in comparison to the dungeon, for sure.” He nodded.

  Her eyes widened in exaggerated agreement. “I know. It’s so nice to be out in the open air again. To fight familiar enemies.”

  Azure glanced around the tavern, wondering if asking his next question would strike a chord. Still, he was interested to see how she’d react. “So, have you seen Uden and Lonnell around lately?”

  Janine’s brow fell a bit, and she glared at him. “Is that all you came to ask me?”

  “No. Of course not.” He jutted his head back. It hadn’t been. If he really cared to find them, he would have gone up to their room first.

  She deflated a bit. “No, I haven’t seen them.” There was silence between them for a few moments, and then she spoke again. “So how are things going with magic school?”

  “Good. I just finished my last quest for land magic. Now I think I want to learn some alchemy. I keep running out of Stamina, and there seems to be no way to fill it quickly without potions.”

  “You should buy a bedroll,” she suggested before taking a long swig of beer.

  “I should.” He hadn’t really thought of it before, but it would make sleeping at night more comfortable whenever he didn’t have a bed.

  “Why haven’t you yet?”

  Azure shrugged. “It just never seemed like a priority. I mean, I kind of got used to sleeping on the ground when I was back on Crescent Island.”

  Janine shook her head. “That’s not why I’m telling you to get one.”

  “Why, then?”

  The barmaid brought over Azure’s beer, and he thanked her and slide two coppers in her direction.

  You have received the following item:

  Pint of Beer

  Quantity: 1/1

  Item Class: Common

  Quality: Average

  Weight: 1.0 kg

  Uses: Makes your worries feel less harrowing.

  Effects: Increases strength by 3% for one hour

  Decreases attack of all weapons and magic by 20% for one hour

  Decreases Agility, Dexterity, Charisma, and Luck by 3 points for one hour

  It tasted amazing after a long day of traveling.

  “When you sleep on a bedroll, all of your stats heal up all the way in the middle of the night as long as you sleep a full eight hours,” she informed him.

  “Really?” He perked up. Why hadn’t he heard of this before?

  “Yup.” Janine took another drink of beer. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”

  “I’m surprised I didn’t know that either.” Or that Lonnell and Uden didn’t know it either. They all seemed utterly oblivious to the knowledge, sleeping on the ground like morons.

  “Well, now you know.” She drained the rest of her beer and stood.

  Azure looked up at her. “Leaving already?”

  “Yup. I’ve got a quest I need to take care of in the morning.” Janine stared straight forward, not even glancing down at him. There was something weird about the way she acting. He couldn’t help but think it had something to do with what had gone on between her and Uden.

  “Hey. We should quest together again sometime,” Azure told Janine as she began to walk away.

  “Yeah,” she replied over her shoulder and then continued to the door.

  He finished his beer in silence, following his same routine of Analyzing everyone who came and went. Sitting there by himself was boring and lonely, but it wasn’t like it was something he hadn’t done many times before.

  When Azure went back up to his room, he found it empty. It made him wonder why they even bothered renting a room at all. They seemed to spend more time out in the field than in it. Perhaps he’d try renting per night instead of for a month at a time once their lease came up. Was it even called a lease here? Whatever the case, there was less than a week left on it.

  Azure drifted off to sleep, waking early in the morning to head back to Hawking’s. While he would have liked to sell his loot at the market and look into buying a bedroll, there was no time.

  His first appointment was with Elise. She greeted him with a smile, taking his quest paper and stamping 'Complete' on it once he'd handed over the required number of Shade Beetle Carapaces.

  Congratulations! Magic School Quest: Clean Up Chelmsmont Hole has been completed.

  You have slain the beastiest making it unsafe for alchemy students to venture into Chelmsmont Hole. They will be most appreciative to their nameless protector. You have also delivered a supply of Shade Beetle Carapaces for those too lazy to quest for them on their own. For your efforts, you are rewarded 260XP.

  Once that business was completed, he moved on, hopping from professor to professor to check out what courses were available. Only about half of the life magic spells interested him. The battle magic spells were less appealing. For alchemy, the list of potions Azure would be able to learn seemed endless, though much like with magic, the professor told him that he would only be presented with three choices at a time, which would be randomly selected, so there was no telling whether or not he'd be getting the Potion of Minor Stamina recipe in his rotation anytime soon. Surprisingly, the most intriguing of the magic types was enchanting. Three of the five available spells for novice enchanters involved summoning, one of which gave him the ability to summon a horse for ten minutes. Azure hadn't seen many horses in The Realm. The convenience of being able to fast travel far outweighed his desire for healing spells or Stamina potions.

  Much like Elise had done, the professor of enchanting tried to convince Azure to pay for a full semester up front. There was one spell in the mix that he didn't particularly care for. Without it, the rest of the spells would cost 10 gold, 6 silver, and 4 copper. If Azure tacked it on, the entire semester would be 11 gold, 5 silver, and 9 copper. Each spell cost 2 gold, 6 silver, and 6 copper individually, and there were 5 spells in all. Wanting to save money, he sucked it up and forked out for the entire semester.

  Considering what had happened with needing the Teleportation Prisms for travel while he was learning land magic, Azure thought it would be best to save back at least 22 gold. He had exactly that much left plus a few coppers, and he still needed to buy supplies. Somehow, no matter how much money he had, he always seemed to end up feeling broke.

  Mareike Nutlea, the professor of enchanting, was a tall willowy woman with a soft voice and large blue eyes. She wore a white flowy robe over equally billowy clothing, and her long blonde hair was held atop her head in a messy bun. There was a stoned quality to her, as if she was speaking through Azure and not to him. He found her to be intriguing.

  “Come back tomorrow, and we'll get started.” She placed a hand on his back, walking him out.

  Satisfied with his choice and ecstatic at the thought of eventually being able to summon his own mount, Azure returned to Squall's End with pep in his step. He Foraged along the way, though not enough to drain his Stamina dangerously low. Night fell, and he was forced to dig into his Bag of Holding for the materials for another torch to keep the nighttime creatures at bay. By the time Azure reached Squall's End, he was absolutely exhausted.

  Uden and Lonnell were in the tavern having a beer. Azure took the empty seat next to the half-imp with a mix of happiness and disappointment. While it was great to cross paths with his roommates, it also meant he'd be sleeping on the floor for the night. That bedroll was looking more and more appealing.

  “Ah, there’s our studious student,” Uden greeted him.

  “I’ll be calling you that soon as well, I hope.” He glance
d over at his friend, who seemed in a particularly chipper mood.

  “In another quest or two,” the half-imp said. “I’m trying to get this one to go learn more alchemy.” He thumbed toward his brother.

  “My only focus right now is saving up to buy a farm.” Lonnell looked determined. “And to do that, we need to go on more Bounty quests.” His gaze shifted to Azure.

  “Sorry our goals aren’t aligning right now. Uden is right, though. You should learn more alchemy. I think I’ve found an exploit for making coin.”

  The barmaid walked over, and Azure promptly ordered a beer.

  You have received the following item:

  Pint of Beer

  Quantity: 1/1

  Item Class: Common

  Quality: Average

  Weight: 1.0 kg

  Uses: Makes your worries feel less harrowing.

  Effects: Increases strength by 3% for one hour

  Decreases attack of all weapons and magic by 20% for one hour

  Decreases Agility, Dexterity, Charisma, and Luck by 3 points for one hour

  “Oh, do tell.” Uden leaned in with interest.

  Suddenly remembering the limited supply of alchemy components for sale in Squall’s End, Azure thought better. There certainly wasn’t enough for all three of them to work the system without someone getting screwed over. “Never mind. I miscalculated.” He sank into his seat a bit.

  The half-imp narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you did.”

  “But hey, I did learn something else.” Azure perked up, changing the focus to redirect Uden’s attention. “Did you guys know that if you sleep on a bedroll, all of your stats recharge overnight as long as you sleep a full eight hours?”