Chapter 2 - Trail
Chapter 2
Trail
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When the village elder awoke in the morning, he went to the boy's room to wake them. He made sure to do it with care, as they were probably in a fragile state after the events of last night. To his surprise, he found them sitting on their beds, conversing seriously.
When Conor saw the elder, his face brightened immediately "Good morning elder!"
The elder was surprised, but waved it away and said,"Morning boys."
Efrain nodded back to give him the sign of "Good Morning"
The elder asked them "What were you two talking about?"
Efrain spoke first "We're going to avenge our parents, but we're not going to become evil to do it. We have decided to become adventurers and become powerful enough to defeat Glacias! We have to do this."
Conor nodded in affirmation before turning to the village elder "Thank you so much for everything you've done for us. We must go now and head to a city with a guild. Do you possibly know where we could find one?"
The elder looked at him seriously "There is one about three days to the north, but the road is infested with monsters, and Conor, with the curse ｢God's Hatred｣ on you, you may die from any hit from even the weakest monster!"
Conor grinned "Then I just won't get hit then will I?"
With these words, the boys prepared to leave the village. They packed rations and water, and a few personal items. Finally, they were ready. As they stepped out of the gates, they realized how vast the world was. It was green grass and blue skies as far as one could see, with a forest in the distance, glistering a dark green color in the sunrise. They set off, eager to become adventurers.
Along the cobble road the boys could be found discussing their abilities. They had been walking for a few hours and were steadily getting tired.
Efrain turned to Conor "Hey, there's a problem. Our spirits and abilities were never before seen until we came along, so there's no way to figure out what they do!"
Conor shuddered "Oh yeah. That means we would need someone with the skill [Analyze] to figure it out. Speaking of skills, what about that skill ｢Create｣? Are there any specifications?
Efrain's face brightened "It doesn't seem like it!"
Conor smiled "Alright then, see if you can create the skill ｢Analyze｣!"
"OK!"
Efrain concentrated intensely for a few seconds before frowning all of a sudden "A screen popped up. It is asking if I want to confirm the creation of the skill ｢Analyze｣. It is also saying that it will cost 150 LP. I have 3000, so it should be fine."
Efrain confirmed the request. (LP 3000 -> LP 2850) "I am going to give you the skill Conor, you have more MP so you can use it more. It will only take another 300 LP." (LP 2850 -> LP 2550)
Conor checked his board | Skills: (Play LVL 1), (Natural Mana LVL 17 [16.74%]), (Analyze LVL 1)
"Alright! I got the skill, now what do we use it on first?"
Efrain said "Could you use it on my skills first? I'd like to know what they do."
"Sure buddy!"
Conor's hands glowed with a soft white light as he called out the skill ｢Analyze｣. A screen popped up between the two when Conor used the skill. (MP 1000 -> MP 700 [Regen 10/min])
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Skill: (Create LVL 1) - Uses LP to create anything. The bigger or more valuable the thing, the more LP used.
Skill: (Grant LVL 1) - Uses LP to give people skills and curses made with ｢Create｣. The better or bigger the skill, the more LP used. If the compatibility between the person and skill is low, the more LP used.
Skill: (Edit LVL 1) - Uses LP to edit or remove the stats and skills of another person. The more complicated the edit, or the bigger the skill removed, the more LP used. Stats are uneditable
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Efrain asked another question "Can you use ｢Analyze｣ on my LP? I want to know what it is."
Conor agreed. (MP 726 -> MP 626 [Regen 10/min])
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LP - This is the "MP" for the skills ｢Create｣, ｢Grant｣, and ｢Edit｣. If your LP hits 0, you will die. LP does not regenerate naturally and can only be obtained through one of the following methods. Firstly, Spend money, 5S= 1LP. Secondly, Earn money, 5S = 1LP. Thirdly, Eat weird or satisfying food, and lastly, spend time with friends and loved ones. (Spending time with friends and loved ones will regenerate you LP by 1/min per person, with a cap of 1000 LP/day per person.
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Conor glanced at Efrain "Dude you're going to have to be more careful using your LP from now on. We don't want you to hit zero, if you do then you could die."
Efrain sighed "Yeah, it looks like that'll be a problem, but don't worry, I'll continue to get more and become stronger."
Conor spoke again "I'm going to use ｢Analyze｣ on my spirit and my skills, because I need to know what they do." (MP 649 -> MP 49 [Regen 10/min])
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Spirit: [Maestro]This spirit is that of an mp3 player. When a song is played, the user of the spirit will be granted the abilities of that song for as long as MP lasts
Skill: [Play LVL 1] This will play a song of the user's choosing from the mp3. Costs 100 MP to choose a song, MP/min varies with song's abilities.
Skill: [Natural Mana LVL 17] This skill grants the holder a much larger than average MP pool. MP regen is also boosted greatly.
Curse: [God's Anger LVL MAX] This curse reduces the STR and the AGI of the holder by 50%. No known cure
Curse:[God's Hatred LVL MAX] This curse reduces the VIT of the holder by 99.9%. No known cure.
Curse: [God's Fury LVL MAX] This curse prevents the person from living over the age of 20 if their LVL is not at least 500. THe only way to break the curse is to reach LVL 500 before the age of 20.
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Conor fell to one knee, panting extremely hard. "Ugh.. looks like draining your MP too low will make you tired. I don't want to know what happens if you use it all."
A screen popped up in front of him.
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Skill: ｢Analyze LVL 1｣ has reached ｢Analyze LVL 2｣ Cost reduced to 95 MP/analyzation. When analyzing a person, you may now see their HP.
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After seeing these words, he brightened up "Hey! That's a good thing! The cost didn't go down by too much though. Anyway, while I do like all of my skills and such. It will be quite difficult to not get hit, so I must take extreme precautions."
Efrain nodded in agreement. They continued down their path, wandering down the cobblestone road. In the distance, they could see the massive looming trees that signified the entrance to the forest. The sun was bright, and there were numerous bushes and small trees peppering the fields. Soon enough, the two came across a small creature blocking their path. It looked like a blob of blue jelly sitting there in the middle of the road. It began to shake and jiggle before springing towards them with a bound. It didn't get very far however and plopped to the ground halfway.
Efrain perked up "Hey I've heard about these things! They're slimes, and they are the easiest enemies to defeat, you could even kill it with a stick!"
Conor's eyes shone in excitement "Really? That means that these will be good for us to gain experience from! I'll use ｢Analyze｣ on it and find out how much health it has."
As he used ｢Analyze｣ his hands shone with a white light and a screen popped up between the boys. (MP 678 -> MP 583 [Regen 10/min])
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Monster
Race - Slime
LVL 2
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HP - 150
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Efrain grinned "This thing will be easy to defeat, but Conor, you can't get hit once or you will die remember?"
Conor smiled "It won't even touch me. ｢Play｣! It looks like I only have one song: EnV - Paladin. Let's play it!" (MP 589 -> MP 489 [Regen 10/min])
As the song began to play. Conor's body shone with a golden light, and he began to change. Silvery armor plates materialized into existence and snapped into place. A helmet was fitted onto his head, and a long plume of feathers sprouted from the top. Finally, a longsword shimmered brightly into existence before hooking itself on his hip. Conor stopped shining and landed on the ground with a heavy *thump* before righting himself.
Conor shouted to Efrain "Hey buddy, can you hold it down?"
Efrain smirked "Sure thing."
He activated ｢Create｣ and ｢Grant｣. He made a status effect ｢Petrified｣ and granted it to the slime. (LP 2550 -> LP 2400)
The slime glowed brightly with a grey light before shaking violently in place. It tried to bounce away, but only succeeded in splattering itself on the ground. It reformed and began to jiggle again. Conor dashed towards the slime before slashing it open, to no avail. The cut closed as quickly as it had opened, and the slime began to shake as if it was laughing at him. Conor became flushed.
"Laughing at me are you? I'll take you down!"
Efrain shouted out "Conor wait! You need to hit the core if you want to hurt it!"
He looked towards the slime and sure enough, there was a small spherical object sitting in the middle of the slime. Conor grinned before running in again and piercing the core with his sword. (HP 150 -> HP 0). The slime suddenly vibrated and exploded before their eyes.
Conor deactivated his skill and sighed "My power is good, but the MP consumption is too high. After only 10 seconds of battling, I used up 100 MP. Plus, you used up some LP. We need to figure out how to get better at this. If we don't, then we are going to end up using all of our power and die before we even reach the guild."
Just then, a chime sounded through the air and a new screen appeared in front of each of them.
(Conor LVL 1 -> LVL 2 [13.07%] Gained 5 stat points! Gained 108 MP!) (Efrain LVL 1 -> LVL 2 [13.07%] Gained 5 stat points! Gained 54 HP! Gained 70 MP!)
Both of the boys grinned. They were happy that they had gotten the level-ups.
Conor spoke first "Hey Efrain, what are you going to put your stat points into?"
Efrain replied "They're going directly into INT. I need to get more MP."
With those words, Efrain increased INT by 5. (INT 20 -> INT 25. MP/LVL increased to 80/LVL. MP cap is 370)
"Hey Efrain, I'm not going to use my stat points. I'm going to save them in case we get in a pinch so that I can get a boost to something."
"That's fine by me." Efrain said
"Oh, by the way Conor, I think I know how we can efficiently kill the slimes. I'm going to give myself the skill ｢Paralyze｣. It costs 500 LP, but we can use it to defeat a lot of things."
"Great idea! Go ahead and do it."
Efrain gave himself the skill ｢Paralyze｣ (LP 2400 -> LP 1900)
After the quick exchange was finished, they continued on their way. They continued walking until nightfall, and then they decided to set up their tents and sleep.
In the middle of the night the boys woke to the sound of rustling. There was something outside their tent, but they couldn't be sure what it was. Conor gently poked his head outside the tent flap but saw nothing. Efrain did the same. They both tip-toed outside and crouched down near a bush, to wait for the mysterious creature. They hadn't been waiting long before they heard a new rustling noise from the tent. The boys were immediately on guard. The tent flap poked open, and out walked a horned rabbit.
Efrain grimaced "That's a horned rabbit. They're renowned for their high health, aggressive behaviour, and high speed. You might want to check its level."
Conor smiled "Got it."
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Horned Rabbit
LVL 2
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750 HP
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Efrain groaned "Oh great. That's a lot of health. Think you can take it down?"
"No problem. Just paralyze it and we're good to go."
Conor used ｢Play｣ to start up EnV - Paladin again. He took his sword and dashed at the beast.
Efrain shouted "｢Paralyze｣!"
The rabbit froze in place, but it still attempted to run and failed due to being paralyzed by Efrain. Conor smirked and ran closer before slashing its body. The rabbit flew backwards and hit the ground, rolling over a few times before coming to a stop. It wasn't moving. He drew closer, intending to collect the spoils, but suddenly the rabbit dashed at him. The horn and sword clashed. Sparks flew as the two tried to overpower one another. Conor began to strain harder, to no avail. The rabbit had an insane amount of strength, and it slowly began to push Conor to the ground
Efrain cried out once again "｢Paralyze｣!" but received a notification. (｢Paralyze｣ failed. Enemy unaffected)
"Conor watch out! It wasn't paralyzed!"
Conor kept pushing, but was getting tired. It had already been thirty seconds, and he only had enough MP for about thirty seconds more. With all the strength in his body he gave a heavy push and shoved the rabbit back, giving him enough time to pierce it once more. This time when the rabbit fell to the ground, Conor stabbed it for good measure. The rabbit's body dissipated into the air, leaving a horn on the ground. Conor fell to the ground as his song wore down; he was panting extremely hard, sweat pouring down his face in rivulets.
Efrain looked at Conor "Are you okay man? That thing could have killed you, are you okay?!"
"Calm down buddy I'm fine. I got a little worried but it wasn't that big of a threat. We do need to get more powerful though, and fast."
[Conor leveled up! Gained 5 stat points, Gained 108 MP]
[Conor leveled up! Gained 5 stat points, Gained 108 MP]
[Efrain leveled up! Gained 5 stat points, Gained 54 HP, 80 MP]
[Efrain leveled up! Gained 5 stat points, Gained 54 HP, 80 MP]
"Cool!" They both shouted. As always, Efrain poured his stat points into INT (INT 25 -> INT 35. MP/LVL increased to 100/LVL. MP cap is 530.) Conor saved his like normal. They stored the horn safely away and went back to sleep. In the morning they resumed their trek along the road. As the sun rose, it sent rays of light bouncing off of the dew in the grass, casting a golden sheen onto the sky. The birds were singing happily, and the weather was bright. Along the way, they had encountered a few slimes and another horned rabbit, but just to be on the safe side, they decided to take a detour around them. Before they knew it, the boys were standing at the cast-iron gates of the city Alabast, home to one of the many Adventurer's Guild bases in the country.