Leveling up (2)

Currently, Ramie was sitting on the rug in the living room, in a complete silence.

Across the room, Lance, Neil, Jeffry and Reem were gazing at him, fixedly, waiting nervously for the result. Lance and Jeffry were standing, and leaning on the wall. Neil was sitting on a chair, while Reem was sitting on the couch, gnawing on a chocolate bar.

Right now, Ramie was in the process of leveling up!

As Reem had said, it was rather a simple process. Apparently, all he had to do; was to hold the magic core in his left hand, the one with the artifact. More ever, the magic core has to be in a direct contact with his palm, with nothing in between. Thus, he pushed the core to the inside of his glove, to achieve the direct contact condition.

The moment Ramie did so; he felt a faint cold stream of energy seeps through his palm from the magic core. Then, this flow of energy moved through his hand passing to the wrist area as though the physical barriers inside his hand of bones, muscles and veins did not exist. It was as if the inside of his hand was empty, like a channel for this energy to coarse through, just like the veins for blood!

As the stream of energy passed to the wrist, the artifact then started crazily absorbing this energy, like dry sponge greedily absorbing fresh water.

Mentally, Ramie started detecting the magic artifact 16 percent value increases one point after another…

17%…

18%…

19%…

20%…

The speed at which this value increased was steady. At one point, he opened his eyes to see if this process slows down or speeds up when he's distracted. However, it remained the same. He even changed his sitting posture, but the absorption speed remained unchanged.

Apparently, the process of absorbing this energy had nothing to do with his mentality or frame of mind, or even his willingness to absorb this energy. This process was purely passive process. All he had to do is to hold the magic core in his left hand, where the artifact is, and close his grip. Afterward, the artifact would automatically start attracting the energy from within this core and then absorb it.

Not long after starting the process of leveling up, he sensed the energy absorption rate slows down a bit by bit. Apparently, most of the magic energy inside this core has been absorbed, leaving only a little. He noticed the core losing its previous translucency, increasingly turning dull in color.

Luckily, the artifact percent had already reached 98%. And he estimated that the remaining energy was more than enough to reach the 100% threshold. Which according to Reem; was the requirement to level up.

Recalling what she had told him about the level up, he couldn't help but to feel nervous about it. She had told him that once he levels up, he'll get a chance to acquire a new spell. Hence, not only he, but all of the other four were nervous.

It was needless to mention the criticality of acquiring new spell in this perilous situation of theirs. And the significant impact it could bring about to improve their chances of surviving past this terrible disaster, as evident by the Fire burst spell of Neil, which had allowed them to survive the otherwise deadly confrontation against the humanoid, snake-headed creature.

Thus, Ramie wished from the depth of his heart for a spell of a similar caliper the Neil's fire burst.

Refocusing on the constantly updated magic energy absorption progress in the artifact, he hoped for a good result. Also, he looked forward to get the information in regard on how to use his artifact.

Seconds ticked by slowly, one after another, driving everyone to the very edge of their patient.

It was as if time was slowing itself down on purpose.

Luckily, not long afterward, Ramie gave them the thumps-up. Thus, bringing an end to the stress in their hearts, and letting them know that the level up process was a success.

However, things were yet to be concluded. As even though he had successfully leveled up, but his worry on the type of spell that he'll get was still nagging him.

< Your magic artifact has gained a level! >

< Your magic energy has risen by +20 units >

< You have gained 1 skill point! >

< Reassessing status… >

- Name: Ramie

- Lv.2 Magic Artifact (7%)

- Path: Bloodline Magic

- Class: Subterranean Ghost Tree (Special)

- Magic Energy: 29

- Innate Spell: Unknown

- Spells: Morphing (permanent)

- Unused skill points: 1

At once, the new updated stat's information flowed to his mind.

The moment the stats popped in his mind, a rush of energy surged from the artifact toward his arm… then from there, spread out to the rest of his body.

This energy was slightly cold, and it moved throughout his body, before settling. It was as if his body was a water tank, and this energy was water.

'So, this is how magic energy feels like…!'

Even though he had nine magic energy points before, but he couldn't sense it, as according to Reem, only after leveling up, or willing to cast spell for the first time can one start perceiving this energy.

Although he had casted morphing spell before, but at that time, a violent and drastic changes took effect in his body, turning him into his current form. So, at the time, a peculiarity such as the magic energy movement inside him was completely overshadowed by the massive change, and he didn't pay attention to it at all.

Actually, yesterday, at night time, when he first woke up after casting morphing spell, he had heard Lance inquire from Neil on how did he managed to use that attack and finish off the creature? At the time, Ramie was too shocked about his current form to partake in that conversation. But still, he had heard it nonetheless.

In that conversation, Ramie heard Neil tell Lance that when he wanted to cast the spell, he had felt a stream of cold energy invade his body, and that he used that very energy by injecting it in the artifact to fuel the casting of the spell.

At the time, Ramie didn't ponder on these words, but now that he had felt this similar feeling of this cold energy coursing through him, the words of the conversation came to him naturally.

After sensing this energy, he remembered Reem warning him about the next step in the level up… which was the rush of information.

She had said that the moment he first levels up, a surge of information will flow directly to his memory from the artifact, which will contain information regarding how to use the artifact and what does the stats and levels means… basically, all one needs to know to make the best use of this mystical bracelet to protect themselves. Also, it'll contain other information regarding the life energy and the creatures.

This made Ramie look forward this particularity with excitement. As it might give him further information regarding his morphing spell and if there was any way of reversing this abominable change and restore his human form.

Of course, even if he finds out that is completely possible to restore his human form, he won't just use it right here and then. At least, he'll wait until he reaches a completely safe and secured place such as the capital before doing so, because, as important as returning to his human form was to him, staying alive was ever more so.

Immediately, Ramie's ceases all of his thoughts, clearing his mind, in preparation for what was to come next.

I the next instant, a rush of cold energy surged from the artifact toward his head, and started invading his mind.

Reem had already warned him in this regard. And according to her words, the moment he levels up for the first time, the artifact would send a massive stream of information to his mind, causing him dizziness at first and then splitting headache later on… And that was the reason why he was sitting during the level up and not standing.

So, he cleared his mind of any unnecessary thought to save up his mental power to deal with the streaming information, and he didn't try to resist the process.

Minutes went on… one minute… two… three…

Ramie's eyes started twitching, as he felt the dizziness creep up on him.

Reem had told him that this stream of information had lasted a several agonizing minutes in her case, because she was caught off guard by this change, and thus panicked and lost her composure and started resisting this process as a result, which in turn led to excessive draining of her mentality in a time where her mind was already on its limits as it processed the massive volumes of rushing information.

So, as per her advice, he tried to rid himself of all kinds of thoughts to avoid splitting his attention, and solely focus on processing this stream of information, not making the mistake of resisting it, as apparently, this was unstoppable process.

Minute ticked by one after another… and the dizziness started intensifying…

Clearly, it was progressing toward developing into a headache.

However, just then, the surge of information slowed down a bit by bit, before completely coming to a stop.

"…"

Ramie was pleasantly surprised, it had finally ended. And there was no splitting headache or anything.

Not wanting to wait any further, he started processing the information in his memory with haste.

"This…?"

All of the sudden, Ramie's heart sank, and his complexion went ashen.

The part regarding his morphing spell had flashed by just now… and it was far worse than he had expected…

…