Silent Night

Lucan was at level 24 while he worked in the fields outside of the village. It was becoming harder to level from the villager's quests. He spoke to Renia about going to the Forest of the Lost, but she cautioned that all monsters and beasts in the woods were level 50 to 100. It would be hard enough if Lucan had armor and gear, so he would have to wait until he raised his level further.

"Lord Quilldrake, why don't you take a break with us, have some water." Said a farmer next to Lucan.

"I am alright, if I keep up my pace for another 30 minutes, I will be done with this section of the field."

"I won't bother you then, but if you don't have plans this evening Mary and I would enjoy hosting you again. The kids are still talking about the last time you came to visit."

"Ha, ha, if I am free, I will stop by, but I need to make a new wand tonight, so I don't know."

The farmer left Lucan to his work. Half an hour later…

[Congratulations! You have leveled up.]

"Ah, finally to 25."

Lucan may have advanced a quarter of the way back to level 100 but, level 0-25 only made up 5% of the experience needed to climb to level 100.

Lucan cleaned up his tools and returned them to the farmer's shed. He headed home and sat on his porch while starting on his new wand with the Forgotten Oak.

Traditional spell casters had access to three devices to cast spell. A staff, an orb, or a wand. Staves generally have the ability to sizably increase the damage output of a spell, orbs normally increase the size of a persons mana pool and wands boasted an increase attack speed and better control while using multiple spells at once. Warlocks were a bit different. Orbs were replaced by rods, usually 2-3 feet long, usually made from metal or stone. Rods didn't increase mana, but they gave an attack bonus to melee damage. The rod could be useful when connecting with someone's face.

Lucan had made a few staves but most of his efforts and gains came from making wands. Now that he was a spell weaver, he was even more determined that control was the way to go. It was a shame that even if he became the best wand maker in the world, he would only do a tenth of the business that an above average staff maker would do. When considering NPCs, maybe there would be more people who appreciated wands.

Lucan snapped out of his bigshot wand dealer daydream when a curious sight occurred in the street before his patio.

A human woman walked past, a player.

'Since when do players come here?'

When she disappeared around the corner, Lucan sent Adrestia to go find Alasan. The shadow drake flew into the half elf's office through the open window.

Lucan conjured an illusion of himself and spoke through the drake.

"Alasan, were you aware that there is another Traveler in the village, besides me?"

"Of course, Lord Quilldrake. She entered the village yesterday with two grassmen. All three were brought back from the Forest of the Lost by Renia's party. It's in the report I gave you this morning."

"Oh, umm, I see. My apologies."

"Do not worry my Lord. We know you are working hard to restore your strength right now, if it were something important, I would make sure you are informed right away."

"Then I will excuse myself, thank you for your hard work." Lucan collapsed the illusion in embarrassment and had Adrestia return to him.

By now, everyone in the village knew Lucan was the weakest person here. They didn't give him a hard time and even recommend several odd jobs that he could do to raise his level. Lucan was very grateful to the people of the village. They were welcoming and accepted him how he was.

Lucan couldn't help but feel concerned now that a player had shown up. His gut instinct was that he wanted her gone. He decided to just keep working on his wand and let time pass. He couldn't concentrate and failed 2 attempts at making a wand and destroyed the ingredients in the process.

"Are you going to stop and say something or circle the block another 10 times!" Lucan yelled from his patio.

Everyone in the street stopped and stared at Lucan. They followed his sight and saw his gaze on the Traveler who had come to the village yesterday. The villagers started whispering and moving about their business while the woman stood before the stairs to his patio fidgeting with embarrassment.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Lucan said, realizing how he put her on the spot in front of all these people. "Do you want to take a seat? I have tea."

Lucan turned away from her to prepare another cup. When he turned back around, she had silently taken a seat. Lucan took a good look at her for the first time.

"Hey wait, I know you! You're the seventh-place ranker Heaven's Kiss. You're the mage who always wears the skimpy clothes. I have seen you on tv."

"That's not me, and that's not my body!" She suddenly yelled while standing up, toppling over her chair and pulling her cloak tight around her as if Lucan was about to molest her.

Once again, the villagers turned and stared at the woman who was backing away from Lucan and protecting her body. She stopped once she realized the villagers were whispering again.

Her head dropped and she tried to apologize.

"That makes us even." Lucan said with a chuckle while motioning for her to take a seat again. "I'm sorry, you're not Heaven's Kiss, I assumed you were using some item to change your name."

The woman took her seat.

"Don't be ridiculous, that's not a thing." She said.

"My mistake." Lucan said, taking great care to not fidget with ring on his right hand.

"It is fine. Heaven's Kiss is my twin sister. She has been playing since 'Evolution' came out, but I only started 4 months ago, my name is Silent Night."

"I am Lucan Quilldrake."

"I can see."

"Okay, why were you circling my house? It isn't a good look for a rogue. Don't let the floppy hat and slippers fool you, if you are looking for an easy mark, it isn't here."

"Hush, I know your only level 25. If I wanted you dead you would be dead."

"Pah, what do you know? I am the Lord of this land for a reason."

"Wow okay, this place is doomed. Just tell me how to leave, I am going to give up on this quest anyway."

"Why don't you go call your sister for help." Lucan said standing up from the table, having had enough of her crap. He turned around to storm off inside while she hollered after him.

"Like hell I would go to her! If you're the damn Lord, do something for me."

"Kill yourself and go back to your saved graveyard!" Lucan hollered from inside.

He heard her shout "ASSHOLE!" As she stormed off.

Adrestia was perched on the roof of Lucan's house and watched Silent Night head off to the outskirts of the village.

Lucan headed into the basement to keep up with his magic practice. He had managed to isolate the expansion formula from the beginning of the illusion spell. Without the appropriate constraints and other formulas, the mana would quickly disperse. But Lucan still had fun filling his basement with shadows as he applied the growth formula to a discharge of pure shadow mana.

He had devoted enough time to become proficient in the 6 spells he knew, the newest being the ability to speak telepathically that Raze had given him. With that spell, he would be able to speak to his followers, even if they were in other realms. Otherwise, the spell was limited to targets he could see.

Lucan had asked Raze about how to leave the shadow realm. He was informed that Bruno could take him if he could negotiate a price with the man, or Lucan could always buy a spell or ability. The latter was both expensive and extremely complicated magic.

He did have a plan though. If Lucan could acquire another 15,000 experience, he could spend 100,000 experience to learn a spell that would allow him to connect 2 places with a magical tunnel. But that would require him to not level up, or else the cost would rise.