After receiving my new spells, there wasn’t much left to discuss with Sett, and the three of us ended up returning to the surface shortly thereafter. While I felt like I deserved a bit more R&R after clearing the poison and mental regions, I also knew I wouldn’t be able to focus until I’d tried out my new magic. To that end, I’d walked over to the mountains, hoping to test out all three of the novel spells.
With all the different schools of magic I’d trained up to the Apprentice rank, one might have imagined it would be hard for me to narrow down my options and pick three spells. In actuality, it hadn’t taken all that long. To start with, I knew right off the bat that I needed to grab something for both spatial and mental magic.
Spatial-wise, I was still hoping to train up the skill in case we weren’t able to destroy all four collection crystals. Theoretically, if I grew proficient enough with spatial spells, I’d be able to teleport us out of the dungeon without Sett’s help. It also didn’t hurt that every level in Spatial Magic slightly increased the dimensions of my Arcane Storage, either.
Unfortunately, the selection of spatial spells I had to choose from were fairly limited, both in number and function. I’d originally been hoping for something offensive, but according to Sett, I was still a long way off before I could forcibly teleport my enemies into the air or mangle the space around them. I would have settled for a good utility spell, but apparently, none of the Apprentice-rank transportation or portal spells would be any better than my existing Spatial Step.
And thus, I’d ended up with something a bit simpler.
Shooting into the air, I quickly spotted a gryphon resting on a rocky outcropping below. As stealthily as I could manage while midair, I drifted down until I was in range and cast my new spell. Nothing seemed to change, nor did the giant bird notice anything amiss, but that was expected.
While gently descending courtesy of Feather Foot, I summoned my bow and nocked an arrow, charging it with both earth and fire mana while lining up my shot. With a barely audible twang, the arrow flew forth towards the gryphon’s head.
Only, the shot wasn’t quite on target. With my heightened Perception and Intelligence, I was easily able to trace the projectile’s trajectory, and to all appearances, it looked like the arrow would land just to the side of the beast’s body.
While that certainly should have been the case, that wasn’t what happened at all. At the last second, the arrow began to shift to the side, curving in a strange and nonsensical manner until it slammed directly into the gryphon’s feathery torso. With a burst of flames and a minor explosion, the projectile discharged its deadly payload.
You have dealt 425 damage to a Stonehide Gryphon!
Nice. A little niche, but I can see myself using this now and then. With my field test completed, I pulled up the spell’s description.
Bend Space
Temporarily alters the curvature of space at a given location. The maximum possible concavity and area affected by the spell increases with the spell level, the mana supplied, and the caster’s level in Spatial Magic. Objects with high mana and mass moving through the altered space will lower the duration of this spell or, in extreme cases, cancel it entirely.
I wasn’t able to “pin” the spell to a moving object, so its actual utility would be fairly limited in any sort of mobile fight. Save for that one fault, though, it was a useful spell both offensively and defensively. For enemies, I could bend space inwards, making my targets appear magnetic as ranged attacks curved into them. For myself, I could do the opposite, allowing me to redirect attacks away from me. Paired with my air armor enhancement which blew projectiles away, the spell would likely let me wade into a volley of arrows without taking a single hit.
A pained screech tore me from my musings as the gryphon -- still very alive and now very angry -- made its displeasure known. Even with a savage, smoldering wound in its side, it wasted no time in taking to the air to home in on me.
All right. Test two. This time, the spell’s range was a bit lackluster, forcing me to wait until right before the beast’s leonine mass was about to crash into me. Turning a portion of my attention to my mental space, I let my trusty Sense Minds ripple out until it revealed the mind rapidly closing in.
Not willing to simply let the gryphon maul me, I called upon my newest mental spell. Unlike Sense Minds, which calmly pulsed out from me, this spell was much more directed -- and violent. A sharp lance of mental energy formed right outside my citadel walls before shooting forward, stabbing into the gryphon’s mind.
While no physical wounds sprouted from its feathered form, the gryphon nonetheless cried out in pain. Momentarily disoriented, it lost control of its wings, fouling its flight. Unwilling to let it recover, I attacked its mind once more while also shooting an arrow at one of its wings to seal the deal. As the beast began to fall back to the earth, I carefully considered my new mental spell.
Mental Spike
Directly attacks a target’s mind, dealing mental damage and disorienting them. While long-term repeated usage may result in lingering trauma, the average mind will quickly bounce back from this attack. This spell has a short range, generally requiring the caster to be touching their target’s head.
Just like for Spatial Magic, I knew from the onset that I’d need to grab a new mental spell. To begin, the magic school was inextricably tied to my two Legendary skills and their usage. More than that, my mental magic was supposed to passively help heal my mind.
Which was all well and good, but in truth, I wanted to level the school of magic for the same reason I’d picked it up in the first place: protection. I doubted there would be more mental monsters now that we’d cleared the dungeon’s mental region, but my run-in with the Mind Reaper had only underscored my need to further protect myself. If a similar situation ever arose again, I wanted to have a real offensive option, and Mental Spike was the answer.
Initially, I’d shied away from it on reading its description, but Sett had assured me it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. As I’d just proven, the “on-touch” part of the spell wasn’t quite accurate. For people like me who could accurately sense minds from afar and propel a spell through a mental space, it was more of a suggestion than anything else.
“All right. Second spell, a success.” My words were punctuated with a loud thud as the gryphon’s body slammed into the rocks below. With its incredibly sturdy body, however, the fall failed to finish it off, giving me a good opportunity to continue my field tests. Cutting off my Feather Foot, I fell to the ground, only reactivating it at the last second to arrest my fall.
On wobbly feet, the gryphon righted itself before charging towards me, intent on mowing me over. I was less certain about my third new spell, but I figured this was as good a time as any to try it.
Countless threads of mana quickly assembled outside my mana core, each of them the dull brown of earth. I pushed the spell out from my hand, focusing on exactly where I wanted its effects to form.
Perfectly timed, a small furrow appeared in the rocky earth. A descending talon, expecting to find stable footing, instead continued downwards further than expected.
This was the only spell I’d really had to think about. My initial hope was to find a powerful, raw damage-dealer. The more I looked at what the grand magus could offer me, though, the more I realized that not many Apprentice-ranked spells could match an arrow fully charged with Overload Weapon. It was only fairly recently that I’d upgraded the class skill to the maximum rank, and those extra class points ensured the skill packed more of a punch than a standard Apprentice spell could manage.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
With that settled, I’d decided to shore up on my weaknesses. Of course, my list of true weaknesses was growing shorter by the day, but there were still a small number of attacks that I had no answer to. One of those was being buried alive. True, courtesy of Arcane Choker and its air and life variants, I no longer had to worry about starving or running out of air, but I had no way to actually escape such a situation.
That was especially top of mind, as right before we’d left for the jungle region, Cal had discovered a tunnel leading into the mountain. Presumably, that meant the boss of the region was somewhere underground. Not thrilled with the idea of dying to something as mundane as a cave-in, I’d opted for a fairly simple spell.
Move Earth
Moves a targeted section of earth, working better on soft soil and significantly worse on solid stone or metal-rich earth. This spell may be used to force the earth apart, creating gaps and holes, or to shove it together, sealing the earth shut. Area of effect and speed of movement dictated by mana cost, spell level, and Earth Magic level.
Already unsteady from its accumulated damage, both mental and physical, the gryphon tripped on the unexpected crevice. Unable to stop its momentum, it stumbled and skidded forward until it came to a halt directly before me.
“That’s enough for now, I think.” Summoning my hammer, I quickly put an end to my field test.
You have defeated a Stonehide Gryphon!
With my spells properly tested, I first did what my mind had been demanding of me for weeks now. Long ago, I’d made myself a home away from home in the mountains, commandeering a small cave for when I needed to be away from the others.
Hopefully, I’d be using it less and less often, but it still had its uses. The very moment I navigated there and sealed it shut with a large boulder, I summoned my mattress from storage, flopping onto it. I wasn’t entirely sure if being trapped in a coma counted as “sleep” in any way, but from a mental perspective, I’d been awake for weeks at this point. Even though my body felt largely fine, the very moment I summoned a few blankets, I was out cold.
When at last I awoke, a single notification was waiting for me.
Soul Resistance has reached level 14!
I had a sneaking suspicion that this would be the last level I received for a while now that my soul was no longer quite as damaged, but I’d take whatever I could get.
With my spells taken care of, there was one last matter of business to handle before I let loose: my class points.
I had nothing against keeping a few in reserve for a rainy day, but with a full nine points burning a hole in my pocket, I knew I needed to at least spend a few of them. One quick circuit through my class space later, and I had a working list of all my options. The Arcane Augmenter room was still a bust ever since I’d grabbed my choker, but the other two still had a good selection to choose from.
Arcane Weaponmaster
Spellsword/Swordspell - 3/5
Enhanced Weapon Skills - 0/5
Armor Penetration - 2/5
Weapon to Wand - 0/1 (Costs 3)
Magic Penetration - 0/5
Arcane Armorist
Resist Magic - 4/5
Mana Sink - 1/5
Enhanced Physical Hardiness - 4/5
Force Dispersal - 2/5
Overload Resistances - 0/1 (Costs 3)
Perpetual Armor - 0/5
Arcane Supremacy - 0/1 (Costs 10)
On the weaponmaster front, I could always use a bit more damage. Case in point, in my recent battle with the hydra, my arrows were partially blocked by its thick scales. The resulting wounds were still pretty serious, but with the hydra’s unnatural vitality, it shook them off pretty quickly.
On the flip side, when the same attacks had landed on its necks, the resulting explosive force had entirely severed its heads. It had been some time since I’d come across something I wasn’t able to sufficiently damage.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case armor-wise. I’d walked out of that fight bleeding and full of poison after getting roughly slammed against the ground. True, in large part, that was because I’d fallen asleep from a soporific poison, causing me to dismiss my defenses, but that was actually a pretty good wake-up call.
Between that, the coma I’d been in while fighting the Mind Reaper, and the omnipresent poison in the jungle that kept me from falling asleep, I was tired of all my defensive skills not working when I needed them. If we went back even further, I’d sorely needed some better defense back when Warram had captured me and drained my mana, too. Out of all my skill options, only one felt like a complete no-brainer.
Perpetual Armor (0/5)
When not wearing existing armor, Arcane Armor now considers your skin a valid armor target. All class skills that require you to be wearing or empowering your bound or conjured armor will work at 20% efficiency even if you do not otherwise have any armor equipped.
Current skills this would affect:
Arcane Armory
Resist Magic
Mana Sink
Force Dispersal
Enhanced Physical Hardiness
Status Resistance
Grabbing the skill would ensure I’d never be fully defenseless again, which is exactly what I did. For good measure, I shoved three points into it, bringing the efficiency up to 60%. For once, no new options were revealed, but the skill was on the seventh step of my class tree, further up than anything else I’d ever taken. I supposed that made sense until I shored up some of the lower branches.
As for my remaining six points, I was feeling a bit noncommittal. Assuming that I’d be tackling the boss in the mountains next, I could see myself in sore need of some extra physical defense or armor penetration, but that was purely speculative. On the flip side, I’d yet to put a single point into Magic Penetration, and I was certain we’d eventually run into some magic-heavy bosses.
But so be it. As much as I’d promised myself not to hoard points, I figured I could take a quick peek at the enemies within the mountain before spending more. If they were easy, I would try to branch out, unlocking more of my Weaponmaster tree. Otherwise, I’d spend them as needed.
From there, I largely just… relaxed. Without any urgent demands, I spent a while working on all of my hobbies and professions.
Gardening has reached level 7!
The garden was coming along swimmingly, and I made sure to prepare a new patch of land for all the samples I’d taken from the jungle, too. By all rights, the land should have been overrun with weeds and the many herbs should have wilted by now, but the dungeon soil was clearly special. After all, the prairie grass managed to thrive even though there was no real sun and it never rained. It kind of made me feel like I was cheating, somehow, but I didn’t mind. I spent some time carefully harvesting any of the plants that looked ready, eager to use them all in new meals.
And speaking of meals, I spent a great deal of my time familiarizing myself with my new cookware. With Arcane Storage, I could easily stash away any food that I made, keeping it fresh and hot, which meant there was no reason to wait until meal times to cook. Whenever the mood struck me, I tried out new dishes. Most of them were for Cal and Verin, but I figured I would be remiss if I didn’t take advantage of the set’s bonuses, leading me to make a few more poisonous dishes for myself. After all, who didn’t enjoy some extra pizazz in their meals? The free Poison Resistance training didn’t hurt either, nor did the fact that eating self-cooked meals counted towards my Mithridatism II quest to poison myself.
Woodworking has reached level 13!
To a lesser extent, I worked on the house as well. Though I’d done a passable job from a functional perspective, I was starting to realize that the structure was a bit drab. While Verin was the artist of the group, I did my best to add some artistic flourishes to the plain log walls, putting my Woodworking to use with some carving.
Intrinsic External Mana Manipulation has reached level 6!
Whenever I wasn’t feeling particularly mobile, I instead turned inwards, running through the new exercises that Sett had given me. While I’d long since grown accustomed to leveling up my internal mana manipulation, the external version was its own beast. Even just extending a thread of mana straight out grew to be an impossible challenge after a short distance, and the best of my attempts lacked any semblance of finesse.
After all was said and done, though, all three of us were feeling a bit antsy. Sure, we’d all needed a break, but it was entirely different from the times we’d had to retreat back to the cabin with our tails between our legs.
Having acquired a taste for victory, we were hungry for more.
And so it was that only one brief week after we’d returned, Cal posed the question that had steadily been growing in our heads.
“So. Time to head out?”
After only a bit of planning, the three of us left the cabin behind, intent on challenging the dungeon once again.
Want to keep reading? Find the next 20 chapters on !
without spending a cent? for book three on Amazon. You don't need to buy the book to rate it, and three quick clicks can help the book a bunch!
