4 The Beginning - Chapter 4
I made a cloak to hide my identity as I walked. Even though it was the dead of night outside I could see pretty clearly due to the lanterns outside each house.
About 10 minutes after I had walked away from the prison I head bells and shouts of alarms as guards called that the prisoners had escaped. Somehow I had every faith that Marr had gotten out unscathed. I looked towards the edge of the village, about a mile away, where the grass stopped and sunk into the shadows at my feet. A cloud breeze once again washed over my as I emerged at the edge of town, dark fields ahead of me. I walked on, hastening my pace.
--
Every time my mana had reached 150 I had used deep traversal to get as far away as I could accurately manage. After a time my skill level went up, each time it went up the cost decreased, it was at 80 by the time that I could no longer see the lights of the town lighting up the night sky.
"May as well rest here, it's not like they'll get this far out." I selected a patch of flat grass by the roadside and willed a campfire into existence. I lit it, using mana weaving and turning the mana into a flame that would create heat. I opened my stat window as I lay on the bedroll that I created next to the fire.
NAME - YOLEN ARCANUM
RACE - FALLEN
LVL - 4
HP - 2,464
HP/s - +24
MP - 1,344
MP/s - +6.7
JOB - MANA WEAVER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - GENESIS/DESOLATION
STR - 20
AGI - 11
CON - 22
INT - 24
FTH - 2
ABILITY POINTS (10)
GENESIS/DESOLATION - LVL 3
INDIVIDUAL SKILL POSSESSED BY -YOLEN- IT IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF CREATION AND ITS COUNTERPART DESTRUCTION -YOLEN- CAN CREATE MATTER FROM HIS IMAGINATION AND DESTROY MATTER HE TOUCHES AT WILL. CAPABILITIES OF THIS SKILL GO UP WITH THE SKILL LEVEL.
MANA COST - 0
DEEP TRAVERSAL - LVL 8
YOU CAN TRAVEL VIA SHADOW.
MANA COST - 80
HELLISH FORTITUDE - LVL MAX
YOU ARE IMMUNE TO POISON AND MENTAL MAGICS. YOUR LIFESPAN AND HP REGAIN INCREASES GREATLY.
MANA COST - 0
CORRUPTING INFLUENCE - LVL 1
YOU CAN TEMPT THOSE AROUND YOU INTO DOING YOUR BIDDING.
MANA COST - 20
ARCANE EYE - LVL 3
ABLE TO PERCEIVE MANA, THE SOURCE OF ALL MAGIC.
MANA COST - 0
MANA WEAVING - LVL 3
ABLE TO GRASP THE RAW FABRIC OF THE ARCANE AND SHAPE IT TO YOUR WILL.
MANA COST - 0
BRINGER OF FLAME - LVL 3
YOU CREATED FLAME THROUGH PRIMORDIAL MEANS AND THUS GAIN RESISTANCE TO FIRE DAMAGE. RESISTANCE TO FIRE INCREASES WITH LEVEL OF SKILL. 10% REDUCED PER LEVEL OF SKILL.
MANA COST - 0
SPELL ANALYSIS - LVL 2
YOU GAIN THE ABILITY TO SEE THE EFFECT OF A SPELL BEFORE IT IS FULLY CAST, AT HIGHER LEVELS YOU BECOME MORE ABLE TO SWIFTLY GRASP THE INTENT OF THE SPELL.
MANA COST - 0
I had also levelled up a couple of times during my travel and a lot of my skill levels had raised. I decided to place my points all in agility as it was my second lowest score and it seemed like a major one. I sat up, wanting to do something more with my time and so, decided to try something out. I wanted to see if I could use mana weaving to give me other skills, particularly one skill.
I held out my hand, creating a duplicate of the dagger I had given Marr, its edge was sharp enough to cut wood like it was warm butter. I then willed the mana to create a small doorway into a 'storage' space. The blue lights brightened, millions of little lines coming to make a disc in front of my hand. That disc that was a bright blue suddenly turned pitch black and I dropped the dagger into it. The dagger didn't fall out of the other side and I was instead gifted with a notification.
SKILL GAINED - STORAGE LVL 1
"Yes." I celebrated, opening the skill description.
STORAGE - LVL 1
YOU CAN OPEN A WINDOW INTO YOUR OWN PERSONAL STORAGE SPACE, THIS SPACE CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY YOU AND THE ITEM YOU THINK OF, IF IT IS PLACED IN WILL BE RETRIEVED. THE CAPACITY OF THS SPACE WILL INCREASE WITH THE LEVEL OF THIS SKILL, 10m³ PER LEVEL.
MANA COST - 10
Happy, I activated the skill and the same black disc appeared, mana creating the doorway. I reached in, thinking of the dagger and grabbed onto something, pulling the dagger out. This was going to be useful if I wanted to keep something.
I kept the portal open as a test and inserted and retrieved the dagger, testing the mp loss each time and there was no change. So I decided to leave it open for the time being, training my individual skill instead.
First I attempted to create a rope, but it only made itself about 5m long. I placed the rope into storage, trying to make a longer rope this time.
About five or six tries passed before I was given a notification.
SKILL LEVEL UP - GENESIS/DESOLATION LVL 4
I then tried making another rope. The length of this one exceeded 8m, a massive jump compared to just one level up. So I continued, this time creating axes and a log with which to chop. Each time I made an axe, it got better and better at cutting the log, it also showed me the effects of doubling my strength. I was blowing massive chunks out of the long log. After splitting multiple logs in two my skill had leveled up another two times, so I continued with creating different things, at one point I tried to make a healing potion and that leveled me up by itself.
By the time I started to feel that I would need some sleep I had a level 12 individual skill and had leveled my total level up to 9. So earned myself 25 points, it was definitely 5 per level, I assumed they were to be evenly distributed between the stats, but I didn't see any need in faith, I wasn't a religious class so it had nothing to do with me.
I was about to place the stats when I thought I may aswell test something. I made a small boulder. Hefting it up, it was lighter than expected but I took note of its feeling. Then I placed my stats.
NAME - YOLEN ARCANUM
RACE - FALLEN
LVL - 9
HP - 8,064
HP/s - +80
MP - 3,024
MP/s - +15
JOB - MANA WEAVER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - GENESIS/DESOLATION
STR - 35
AGI - 21
CON - 32
INT - 24
FTH - 2
ABILITY POINTS (0)
I then lifted the boulder again, this time it was far lighter, about the same weight as an office chair, even though it was a dense rock the size of a office chair.
"Wow, the difference really is noticeable." I said to myself while erasing the rock from existance. My fatigue caught up to me and I knew I would have to go to sleep, it wouldn't be long until sunrise.
And so I settled down to sleep on my bed roll next to my fire. Lazily, the dark embrace of sleep claimed me.
--
I awoke, suddenly very aware that I had been sleeping in the middle of a field as there was something I never thought I'd see in front of me. A wild boar, red glowing eyes and the size of a horse.
"Oh crap." I leapt to the side as the boar came charging past, to be honest it didn't threaten me very much as it's movements almost appeared sluggish when I concentrated. Flicking up my stat screen I checked the effect of agility.
AGILITY
STAT DEDICATED TO THE SWIFTNESS OF A BEING, THE HIGHER THE STAT, THE FASTER YOU ARE IN COMPARISON.
Ah, so the agility stat increased my accuracy and speed through the phrase 'speed is relative' it made my surroundings feel slower if I really concentrated.
The boar slowly spun around, a few metres from me, readying a charge again. This time I sidestepped it but grabbed onto one of its tusks at the same time, wrenching its face to the floor. The beast's head collided with the ground and it flipped over from the speed of its approach. As it was on the ground I thrust a hand to the side, activating my storage skill and retrieving the battle axe that had come out of my repeated trials, a sapphire blue metal with a golden inside that showed through the etchings and the sharpening on the two heads of the axe. I brought down the weapon with two hands upon the boar's neck, slicing its head cleanly off and sinking the axe deep into the ground.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
LEVEL UP!
