4 A stone who wanted to be a mage
Time kept ticking away without me making much progress. After a long time playing around with ‘Help’, I finally discovered more or less what stuff I could use ‘Help’ on. Also, I had fully understood how to interpret the status window, but that did not help to improve my current situation...
‘Mmmmm, so what next?’
Moving was impossible. Not only was it anatomically and physiologically impossible due to my lack of limbs, to top it off, all my physical stats displayed big fat zeroes. My only option was magic. Surprisingly, my magic capacity seemed to be… high?
‘Hey Helpy, are my stats high?’
I got tired of calling the Help skill “Help”, it made me terribly confused, so I gave it a nickname. Do you think I’m crazy? Try spending two days in the middle of nowhere, unable to move and with no one to talk to. I assure you’d end up willing to talk with just about anyone, even if it’s just a damn voice in your head or some text written on a transparent screen in front of your face… or whatever it is that you have for a face.
[The average stats of a low-grade being at level 1 are generally between 3 and 10.]
‘I guess my stats are really high then… well, if we take into consideration the fact that I only have 2 stats… It looks like I dumped all my points just into those two, so my overall stats do not seem all that high… In fact, they are rubbish. And what about the level? How come I don’t have a level!’
[You are a stone.]
‘Fuck you very much Helpy… Whatever, nothing I can do about that…’
Back to the topic at hand. If I had mana and magic power, I should theoretically be able to use magic. I would be very sad if it turned out that I was unable to use magic due to being a stone…. Luckily, that didn’t seem to be the case.
First things first, I needed to figure out how to move. I didn’t give a damn about everything else. I needed at least a glimmer of hope that I would not spend the rest of my life stuck in the middle of this field of weeds. And that’s assuming that I even had a “life” to begin with. I feared that the time would continue to go by, and I would end up buried in dirt, dust or something worse… No, no, and no! I will have none of that!
[Helpy, is there a skill such as telekinesis, or perhaps flying magic?]
That was the first thing that came to my mind. Flying freely across the sky would be a dream come true for anyone, although it seemed to be a bit difficult to achieve. Telekinesis seemed somewhat more feasible. What was important was figuring out whether that was even possible at all.
[There is.]
I shed an imaginary tear of happiness after hearing Helpy’s answer.
‘What kind of magic would that be?’
[Neutral magic.]
‘Neutral magic, huh? Since I have magic power, does that mean I could potentially learn it through practice?’
[You could potentially learn it through practice.]
‘Thank you, god… but I still hate you for turning me into a stone… So, Helpy, how does telekinesis work?’
[With mana.]
‘No… shit, I mean, what do I need, specifically, in order to learn it.’
[Practice.]
‘Underwhelming… I’ll have to put some effort into leveling you... I am starting to have doubts about what is considered basic general information and what not.’
Magic uses mana points, that part was obvious The problem was figuring out how to use my mana.
‘Let’s try once more… Helpy, how do I use mana?’
[By using skills.]
‘Fuck you! Aaaaaa, yes, leveling you will be my next priority.’
Time to use my brain. It couldn't be difficult. After all, it seemed to be a basic concept in this world, otherwise Helpy wouldn't have known about it… or wouldn’t have bothered answering… Based on my scant knowledge of magic, all of which came from games and movies, it was something that required using a mental image. I bet this wouldn’t be any different...
‘Focus, focus, focus…… Feel the flow of mana inside you…’
I imagined taking deep breaths over and over again. Since I had no eyes, I couldn't close them in order to improve my concentration, but I did my best to mimic the sensation. I ignored my surroundings and focused on myself and myself alone.
I had no need to sleep or rest, one of the perks of being stone, so I could go on until I achieved a positive result. For at least six or seven hours, I tried to no avail, but past the eighth hour, I felt something flowing inside my body. It felt like blood circulating through my veins. Obviously, stones don’t have blood, so what I felt was most certainly mana.
‘Yeah! I knew, it couldn’t be that difficult! Although if I was still human, I probably would have dozed off hours ago without realizing… Anyway, I’m only getting started here!’
Feeling the mana was not enough. In order to make real progress I had to be able to control it as naturally as I breathed… not that I was doing much breathing lately, being a stone and all… Therefore, I started focusing again. After another hour mentally shouting: “move, move, move”, I finally figured out how to control the flow of mana at-will...
[New ability acquired: Mana control (Lvl 1).]
… and a wild ability appeared out of nowhere.
‘So that’s how you learn a skill, huh? Simple enough after all.’
Once the message popped up, manipulating my mana became straightforward. Compared to the hard time I had just moments ago, it was like night and day.
‘I feel like I have known how to control my mana for years.’
I was quite excited, but as I was fooling around with mymana, I suddenly remembered what day today was. Provided, of course, that time flowed the same way here as it did in my previous life...
‘Today I turned thirty… it seems that I just took the first step towards becoming a mage… I’m depressed… I don’t know what’s worse, being a stone or this… probably the combination of both…’
Well, now that I could control my mana, it was time to learn telekinesis. I kept concentrating, attempting to use my mana as a hand to pick up my body. It took me several hours, but finally my body started to shake lightly.
‘It works! It works! Go, go, don’t stop now!’
I kept trying my hardest and finally my body rolled over itself once.
[New ability acquired: Roll (Lvl 1).]
[New title acquired: Wandering stone (Lvl 1).]
It was not telekinesis, but still, I was extremely pleased with the results. For the time being, being able to move, even a little bit, was good enough. But what’s with that strange and somewhat dubious title...
‘Helpy, what is this title?’
[A title for being a stone that moved by itself.]
‘Great, now I’m a thinking and wandering stone… Is this a joke? I want to meet the one who came up with these titles, they seem designed specifically to mock me!’
I was still busy cursing, when I saw something approaching in the distance. Some sort of blue blob of mud or mucus was slowly creeping over the field. It wasn’t too big, probably four or five times my size at most.
‘That is…’
[Blue slime.]
‘Oh well, I figured it out. A fucking slime. I guess it’s nothing to worry about, considering even dragons ignore me in this world’
At first I didn’t pay any attention to it, but it kept getting closer little by little. And actually, it seemed to be coming straight to me. By the looks of it, I was on the slime’s way.
‘This is not good. I better step back a bit. Luckily, I have just learned the roll ability, otherwise I would have been in a bit of a pinch.’
I used ‘Roll’ to get out of the slime’s path, though I didn’t get very far. After ten rolls my body stopped on its tracks, and I was consumed by a feeling of emptiness.
‘What the… Status!’
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Common stone | Race: -
HP: 5/5 | MP: 0/20
Stats:
Vitality: 0 | Strength: 0 | Agility: 0
Intellect: 10 | Magic power: 20
Abilities: Mana control: 1 Roll: 1
Special abilities: Help: 1
Titles: Thinking stone Wandering stone: 1
————————————————
My MP was down to 0. That means that each use of ‘Roll’ consumed two mana points.
‘Isn’t that too much? Well, at least I put some distance between me and the slime… Wait, what?’
That fucking blob of snot changed its course and was crawling straight towards me once again. It was less than ten meters away from me and it wouldn’t take long for it to catch up to me.
‘Wait, wait, wait! Stop, stop right there! Don’t come any closer!’
With my mana depleted I had no way of escaping from the slime, and that thing didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping or turning away from me. I was its prey.
‘Do these blobs eat stones?! Impossible! Shit, Don’t get any closer! You are gross! Stop, stop, nooooooo! I don’t want to, I don’t want, noooooo! Heeeeeeeeeeeelp!
[What do you want to ask about?.]
‘Not you!’
‘And without any means of defending myself, the slime crawled over me… and swallowed me whole…’
