Mana Gathering

As both Mike and Orion were absorbing the mana from the crystal itself was shrinking down from the size of Mike's fist to about the size of a pea over the next few hours. Both of them did not notice the drastic change in size as they both were more focused on meditating and absorbing than paying attention to what was going on around them.

This was why most magic-users tended to meditate and draw in mana in secured locations as they focus solely on the absorption of mana that they cannot really put their attention elsewhere or they might lose mana in their surroundings resulting in a longer meditation. So the safer the environment the better meditation that the magic-user will have. Still, meditation is one of the best ways for magic users to get assassinated especially the younger apprentices since they are the future forces of kingdoms they tend to have their throats slit, or killed by nonmagical ways if they are caught meditating out in the open.

As Mike and Orion were meditating in their room all the mana inside was rushing towards Mike sucking every bit of magic inside of the room no matter where it was. Soon enough Mike opened his eyes once more to see that the mana crystal that was in his hand was no longer there and in its place was Orion's snoot.

Orion still had his eyes closed from when he also still attempted to absorb mana so Mike just gently moves his hand away and just leaves his dog to do his thing.

'What time is it?' Mike asks as he moves his stiff joints

"It is morning" Abbey answers

'Really I was meditating that long?' Mike asks as he was surprised that absorbing the mana in the crystal took so much time

Still, Mike could do nothing about that and sleeping would not help much as he had more pressing matters to attend to. Still coming from the modern world Mike could afford to go through a day without any sleep as he had done that before like most kids back on Earth.

Mike opens up his system status to see how much has changed after absorbing the mana crystal.

_____________________

Name: Mike H. Briggs

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 17

Main Class: Learner (Locked)

Subclasses: None

----Stats----

Note: Various other stats are related to the stats below but the ones started below are the main stats

[Lvl 4]

Experience: 0/2500

Health: 60/60

Stamina: 45/45

Magic: 54/54

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 27

Charisma: 16

Intelligence: 23

Luck: 14

Negative effects: Spellcasting trouble [1 day]

Skills: [Skill steal] [Hard to hit] [Beginnners Stealth] [Small Luck] [Basic Herb Gathering] [Basic Herb Identification] [Intermidate Pain Resistance]

Skill Pieces: Dual Casting- 8/1000

Proficiencies: None

Unused points: 2

Reserved exp: 0

Spells: Cantrips (Expand)

_____________________

'Hmm... I guess I can use my points on something' Mike thinks to himself as he takes a look at his character sheet

Mike puts one unused point into his constitution and the other unused point into his strength bringing his total health points to 65 and his strength score to an even 12.

'Hey, Abbey did I accept the awards of the document quest yet?' Mike asks as he realizes that there is no exp that he can allocate

"Not yet you got to accept the rewards for the quest," Abbey answers

Mike moves to his quest tab and takes a look at the completed quest section seeing that the [Document Recovery] quest was waiting to be claimed by him.

'Ding'

The rewards for the quest [Document Recovery] have been collected

'Neat' Mike thinks

Mike got +10 Castleburn favorability, +500 exp, and a common grade accessory from the quest completion.

The exp he would keep for now as he would leave it for a quick level up for a skill in case he needs to level them up and upgrade them to something better to help himself survive some sort of encounter that he had.

As for the favorability, mike did not really know how to utilize that but even if he knew how he would not really want to use it since he preferred getting things on his own through payment, favors, or the classic solid. As for the common accessory from the system Mike taps on that intending to get something cool to wear.

This time instead of the wheel showing up it goes straight to the slot machine and Mike cranks the lever back causing it to start spinning really fast.

Eventually, when it stops it shows an image of a mask.

'Ding'

Host has gained [Fear Mask] of the common grade and is in the inventory space

'[Fear Mask]?' Mike thinks as he opens up his inventory to see that the mask was there in its own space.

__________

[Fear Mask]

Effects: Causes those at a lower level than the user to be induced with a varying degree of fear for the duration of the mask when activated and induces advantage for the user against their target if any actions are taken

Duration: 1 minute

Activation Cost: 5 mana

__________

When Mike took the mask out of the system space that was the information he got from it as he held it in his hands. The weird thing was that Mike did not see anything weird about the mask as it literally just a clear silver mask that had nothing on it. Heck, he was unsure that he could even look through it if he put it on. Still, Mike wanted to test it out, and seeing as how he could not really do so with Orion being busy and Dike questioning how he got it into his possession Mike had to figure out what its effects were against someone else if possible.

And where better to do it than the slums of the city. He would just find some random place to put on his mask and with the fact that he was in the slums, no one would care as his last time there showed him that when he was trying to escape those three that captured him. Still lingering on the past too long will not change the future so Mike puts the mask back into his inventory and opens up his room while leaving Orion to do whatever it was he was doing.

After telling Dike that he was going out to meet with Wendel to talk about his reason for not completing his quests Mike is allowed to leave and starts moving. Now Mike actually does go to meet Wendel and explains the situation about what happened by just giving him a brief overview of what happened and telling him that he would have his remaining quests completed soon Wendel accepts that as he sees that Mike is not lying as the faint aura that Mike had was something that convinced him.

With that Mike takes his leave and enters the slums of the city once more.

...

While Mike was weaving through the busy streets of Irondale on his way to the slums there was something that was happening back at the barracks of the guards deep in the third floor of the dungeon.

At the cell where the only remaining survivor of the trio that captured Mike, the man was just sitting there in his measly cell and trying their best to ignore the pain of hunger that seemed to torture him as he sits there in the small confines of his cell that prevented him from moving much. The man had not eaten for days and what was worse was that he had been force-fed some sort of rooting meat to make him throw up whatever he had in his stomach, which was not much.

The man was being slowly tortured and what was worse was that the man could not kill himself like he wanted to as there were guards that were on standby to make sure that happened and if he attempted to kill himself then they would just apply ointment to his wounds to prevent himself from dying. He once had all sorts of pills that he could have taken inside his body to himself but because of that damned Royal Wizard, they were all found and taken from him before he even got the chance to use them.

He would gladly accept a swift death from anything but the guards were not that kind as they only broke his bones leaving him there in his cell to recover as best he could naturally leaving his bones to heal in weird positions. If he ever left the confines of his cell he would defiantly be crippled unless some high-tiered healing magic was used to help him.

"Alright now. Time for the daily questioning," One of the guards on duty says as he places a stool in front of the cell

This is why he was down here just for some information about the organization that he had been trying to get into to become a renowned killer feared across the land with the organization behind him. But those dreams had crumbled to dust now.

"Where is the headquarters of the organization?" The guard asks in a monotone voice

This was the routine that all the guards here had been tasked with as they had to constantly ask this prisoner a rudimentary set of questions, write down the answers, and then report them to the higher-ups to make use of it. However, this guy was not going to crack soon and this guard knew that so he just wanted to get this over with so he could leave the stuffy underground and switch with the pair of guards that were going to relieve him and his buddy from work. In fact, there was already a betting pool to see who the guy would spill the beans to as there was only a small amount of guards that were on guard duty.

As the guard was thinking about what he would be having for dinner he failed to notice that someone was right behind him.

The person behind the guard covers his mouth while also using a dagger to slit his throat clean.

The guard shouts out in a muffled grunt before his eyes go dim after a while of struggling in the person's strong grip which prevented him from escaping. With the guard now dead the person behind them lets go of the guard's body which slouches in the stool staying upright a bit before falling onto the ground with an audible thud.

"By the gods Two you look like you have seen better days," The man says as he procures a set of keys which he uses to open the cell that Two was held in

Two does not say anything but just looks up at who his savor is and is slightly surprised to see them.

"One is that you?" Two asks

"In the flesh brother," One answers as he steps closer in his same robed clothing and helps Two out of his cell

"How did you survive? I thought that you were dead when the Royal Wizard raided the tavern," Two asks in sheer disbelief as he is helped by One

"It activated as I was engulfed in my own flames can you believe that I now owe that demon 100 souls as payment for bringing me back," One answers as he helps lead Two towards the stairs of the upper floor

"We cannot go that way there are more guards around here so you won't be able to do anything with me around. Just kill me and leave," Two says seeing the stairs ahead of them as well as another dead guard slouched on the staircase

Two was very malnourished to the point that moving was almost possible let alone climb these stairs, so Two offered One to just kill him and leave so that way all loose ends were taken care of.

"No way buddy we have both gone through too much to just let you end here alright we are getting out of here and you know how?" One asks

Two who was slightly surprised at how the usually distant One was actually acting so caring just shakes his head to show how he does not understand.

"With this," One says as he shows Two a key which he procured from within his robes

Without explaining further he takes the key and puts it forward in the doorway of the stairs just like one would do when inserting it into a door to unlock it and then turns it. One turns the key suddenly a door shaped portal opens up which greatly shocked Two as he now knew that what One had in his possession, which dispelled any previous thoughts of this being a trick, was something that could only come from their teacher.

With that confirmed they both walk through the portal and as they go through the portal closes leaving behind two dead guards and the open cell door behind as a testament to what happened just then.