018 First Spells

James felt a great weight on his shoulders. His teacher has a very deep story with all kinds of twists and turns. He even passed on his most prized possession. He had to live up to his teacher's expectations.

"Teacher, the glove only has one open gem slot out of nine. Then there are a few seals on the glove. Does than mean the glove has lost it's potential?"

"The glove's strength has been temporarily diminished due to the passing of time. Currently the glove will only accept a single gem but later on you will be able to add more once some of the seals are lifted. The seals not only limit the number of gems you can add but they also lock away some of the glove's features."

His teacher looked off into the distance for a while, "I'm sorry. I need some rest; for now I will leave you to your own devices. Work on your spells. I will return after a while."

After his teacher finished talking he entered his hut.

James departed from his teacher's hut and returned to the short of the island. He sat down on the sand and drifted into thought. There was so much more to the game's story that the developers ever let on.

.

-----------------------

Mask of Illusion

...

Time Left: 3 days, 02 minutes, and 47 seconds.

-----------------------

.

It took him over a full day to figure out the basics of creating spells.

[I need to quickly create some spells so that I can finish up here and return to the surface. I would like to have some item remaining on the mask in case I find trouble.]

James looked at the glove on his right hand and smiled. He felt honored to have such an item.

James tried to focus on controlling his mana. He needed to direct it to his hands and then his fingers.

Slowly he managed to get mana to flow through his body into his hand. The glove he was wearing started to glow. Runes started to appear all over the glove. There were too many runes to count. Just looking at the runes made his head hurt. He did not understand a single one so he gave up on the idea of studying the glove, well for now.

Mana started to flow to the tip of his pointer finger. Mana started to collect at the tip of his finger. The more mana that was collected the bigger the wisp of mana grew.

He tried to copy what his teacher did. Once the mana finished collecting he waved his hand in the air. He was trying to draw the 'power' rune.

Lines of mana started appearing as his finger drew into the air. The width of the lines were anything but uniform. Some spots had very thick lines while others had a thickness that was nearly impossible to see.

He finished drawing his first rune but before he outlines it in a hexagon he looked at the completed rune as felt sick.

[What a crude rune. My first ever physical rune was not nearly close to as bad as this...]

He attempted to finalize the rune with a hexagon but when he encapsulated the rune it disappeared.

James had a deadpan face as he watched the rune disappear before him.

[I know it was bad but did you have to vanish in such an insulting way... When drawing and etching a physical rune consistency is key. I need to find away to make all the lines uniform. The ley-lines naturally form thanks to the rune's lines being made directly from mana, which does make things easier.]

James continued practicing for hours. The more he practice the better the lines looked. The only problem? Mana.

Currently He could only draw eight full runes before he ran out of mana. He would need to take a break until his mana finished regenerating.

He found it annoying to wait almost 40 minutes for his mana to regenerate in full. However, the wait did give him time to think how to improve his technique.

[I can see why [Magical Conduit] and [Magical Battery] is so important for [Spell Weavers], it is almost unbearable during my down time. If only I had a stockpile of mana reserves then I would practice nonstop.]

A few hours into his training James finally mastered the 'power' rune. He was able to finish the rune in a few minutes instead of a half of an hour. He was still miles away from his teacher's speed but it was a start.

He moved onto the next pieces of the puzzle. He started drawing the 'linking' rune like he had done with the 'power' rune.

Several hours and many breaks later James flopped down to the ground. Sweat covered his forehead.

[Who knew that the 'linking' rune would be the more difficult of the first four runes. I currently know the power, linking, and target runes. Teacher said that there would be a confirmation if I want a spell to fill one of my open spell slots or not. Meaning I can attempt to make a tier one spell complex. I want to see what the outcome will be like without the modifier rune.]

While still laying down on the beach James started drawing runes into the air. Before he knew it there was four runes floating above him. He directed the runes into a tier one spell matrix.

[While it will be inefficient and a lackluster spell I will be able to see the whole process. I will just be careful not to claim it as one of my open spell slots.]

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier one spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Minor Strengthening

Level: 1 [Unupgradeable]

Effect: Increases the target's attack power by 1.

Maximum Targets: 1

Cost: 50 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

James quickly selected the matrix memory. Since it was saved there he would be able to go back and make changes in the future. It would save him time when he wants to later improve the spell matrix.

[I can see what teacher means when he said no one would want a tier one spell... Time to start on the modifier rune.]

James only had less than two days left on his mask by the time he finished learning how to draw the 'increase' rune.

[Lets updated the [Strengthening] spell to a tier two matrix.]

He brought out the previous spell matrix from his matrix memory and added the new rune to the matrix. He also had to create two more linking runes to finish the matrix up then configured them into a '8' shape with the 'increase' rune in the middle.

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier two spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Minor Strengthening

Level: 1

Effect: Increases the target's attack power by 10%.

Maximum Targets: 2

Cost: 6 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

James again selected to save the matrix into memory. He wanted to wait until he creates a few spells before he makes his final decision. His teacher did not say exactly when he would get new spell slots.

Besides, he could modify that exact spell matrix to create a debuff spell. All he would need to do is switch out the 'increase' rune with a 'decrease' rune.

After practicing for a while he was able to create the new rune. He played with the menus for a little while until he figured out how to duplicate spells currently stored in the spell matrix memory.

He edited the duplicate [Strengthening] skill. He swapped out the modifier runes and expected his work.

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier two spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Minor Crippling

Level: 1

Effect: Decreases the target's attack power by 10%.

Maximum Targets: 1

Cost: 5 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

He saved it to the matrix memory and continued learning different effect runes from his photographic memory.

He had worked very hard developing his new spells, so hard that he had very little time left on his mask.

.

-----------------------

Mask of Illusion

...

Time Left: 1 days, 16 minutes, and 21 seconds.

-----------------------

His time was not wasted. He now had six spells that he could learn. There were spells for both buffing his stats and debuffing the enemy's stats. He targeted three different stat: attack, defense, and agility. He figured he would be able to create two more spells that targeted the dexterity stat but he was running out of time.

[I have six different spells to pick from, all of which are utility spells. I have not been able to learn a defense nor attack spell. I will have to visit my teacher to get him to show me a few examples.]

He first wanted to recover his mana. Both drawing and modifying spells had a high mana cost. Since he was running low on time he wanted to be able to jump right into his practice after his teacher was done with his demonstration.

[I was not able to create any spells that had greater effect than 10% change in the targeted stat. I might need to learn higher quality runes or need to find out how to design branching matrices...]

He was conflicted, he only had 5 open spell slots. He needed to save two of them for his attack and defense spells. He was left with a choice; which three of his current spell should he actually learn?

[The choice is hard. If I pick the buffing spells I can increase my own stats. The problem with that is the small bonuses I would actually receive. While 10% sounds quite considerable, but in reality the result could be deceiving. Currently I have 30 attack points so if I were to use the strengthening spell on myself I would only gain 3 more attack points for a total of 33. On the other hand, if I were to use its counterpart and debuff a target's attack points I would be able to survive better. With the monsters being stronger than normal they could drop dozens of attack points with a single spell.]

James got so frustrated his thoughts escaped his mind and he started talking to himself, "Gahh! Damn it! But if I have higher attack points then I can deal more damage and kill things faster, Why does this have to be so damn difficult. Each different spell can be argued in the same fashion!"

His outburst must have distracted his teacher.

James felt like lightning hit him when he heard his teacher's voice, "Why not combined them?"

"Genius! I can lower my target's stats while increasing mine!"

James frantically started trying to figure out how to combine his spells.

His teacher had left his hut a long time ago and was observing James's progress. He had a smile on his face.

Combining two spells turned out to be a major obstacle for James.

First off, he did not have enough mana to draw more than 8 runes. He had to ask his teacher if there were any magical sources that he could siphon to increase his mana pool. His teacher gave him a few magical beast cores. Each one of them pushed him over his limit and could now draw 12 runes before he needed a break.

Now that he could draw more runes needed to do more research.

At first he just tried to add more linking runes and a modifier rune to the matrix but that only resulted in the target of the spell to have their stats both increased and decreased. They canceled each other out.

He found some hints in his teacher's book. A spell could have multiple target runes. You just have to be careful on how everything falls in place.

He discovered he needed two target runes. On top of that each rune effected both targets. He created all sorts of weird effects while trying to find the best fit for his want.

He was very happy when he finished. His new spell matrix pretty much took the shape of a diamond. The spell turned out far better than he could have ever hoped for.

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier three spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Leach Strength

Level: 1

Effect: Sap the target's attack power by 5% and then adds it to the desired target(s).

Maximum Targets: 3 --- [ 1 target to debuff then up to 2 target to buff]

Cost: 5 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

He was so satisfied with the result he instantly added it to an open spell slot. He continued to create two more spells.

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier three spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Leach Defense

Level: 1

Effect: Sap the target's defense by 5% and then adds it to the desired target(s).

Maximum Targets: 3 --- [ 1 target to debuff then up to 2 target to buff]

Cost: 5 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

.

* Ding *

-----------------------

You have created a tier three spell matrix, the spell's information is below.

Spell Name: Leach Agility

Level: 1

Effect: Sap the target's agility by 5% and then adds it to the desired target(s).

Maximum Targets: 3 --- [ 1 target to debuff then up to 2 target to buff]

Cost: 5 mana per second

Save spell to open spell slot or matrix memory?

[Open Spell Slot] [Matrix Memory]

-----------------------

.

[By combining the buff and debuff spells together I pretty much doubled their effect. Now I need to create my last two spells!]

This time his teacher approached him, "You have made me proud. With some small help you managed to create some tier three spells. That is the limit of help I can give you apart from casting a few more spells. Which would you like to learn?"

First, James took a glance at the [Mask of Illusion].

-----------------------

Mask of Illusion

...

Time Left: 0 days, 36 minutes, and 58 seconds.

-----------------------

Just before James made his decision his teacher dropped a bomb on him.

"There is something I should tell you. You should have been able to figure out that I do not really have a physical body. Within the hut all you would find is a skeleton. I am able to manifest this projection thanks to the runes and mana crystals on the roof of the cave. This cave, the magic formations, and the runes were all left here by my master so that his teachings could continue to be passed down."

His teacher checked to make sure James was following what he was saying before he continued, "However, this cave was not meant to be a practice ground. Every time you had stopped to recover your mana you were drawing mana out of the crystals above us. How they are nearly empty and need to replenish themselves. Thus this space cannot contain any living being for much longer. Fear not, once you leave the mana stones will be able to replenish like normal. "

"How much time is left and how long do I need to wait to return? Also What good is the [Return to Knowledge] spell if I cannot return here?"

"There is only 25 mins remaining until you must leave. It wont be too long before you can return; it will take a month for the mana crystals to fully recharge. As for the spell, you can still use it, instead of the oasis you would be teleported to the top floor of the library."

His teacher had a serious look on his face, "Since time is short we have a few options. First, we can focus on one spell so you have a higher chance of understanding it's spell matrix. You will probably have to practice it somewhere outside of this cave. Second, I can show you two spells and we hope you can get enough to go off of. Which do you think is best?"

James took a minute to ponder over his options. [Since I have those utiliy spells I could probably skip out on the defensive spell for now.]

"I choose to learn an offensive spell. I think it would be best if it was simple but effective."