If I focused on the spell names, the system would give me a description of each one.
[Root Bind] plant magicCost: 30 manaTemporarily hinders an opponent’s ability to move by wrapping them with powerful roots from the earth. Must be on soil with some level of plant life to work.
[Leaf Dart] plant magicCost: 42 manaHurls a sharpened spine of a succulent plant at an opponent, dealing physical damage.
[Healing Water] water magicCost: 54 manaUses a small amount of natural water to heal minor wounds.
[Void Blade] void magicCost: 100 manaTransforms your staff into a knife with a blade made of pure void magic for 1.0 seconds. Requires a staff to cast.
I sat under my world tree in my orb, considering my options.
The wounds I had received this morning convinced me that I would need healing magic at some point, but with how readily Bagavash had handed me that healing potion, I assumed we’d be bringing them in spades on our rift quest.
I noticed that [Fireball] had disappeared from my spell choices. Someone had mentioned that it was a starter spell that all wizards had the option to learn, and it’s not like I had a fire affinity anyway, but it did make me worry that as I leveled up, certain spells would no longer become available.
That put a kind of pressure on my build choices. Although, since I did have a water affinity, even if it was a weak one, I was confident that, even if [Healing Water] disappeared, I would be offered another healing spell at some point.
I still had the option to upgrade [Void Thread] to level 2. The description said it would increase the diameter of the attack. Presumably, I could increase the diameter with each upgrade of the spell. Right now, it was so thin that it hardly did any damage, despite its incredible piercing ability. It was my long-term goal to upgrade it to the point that the beam was the width of a bullet, but even if level 2 doubled its current width, it would still just be like two threads instead of one. Probably not enough to kill a decent monster.
My fight with the boar made it clear that I needed a spell for close-range combat. That left [Leaf Dart] and [Void Blade].
Myrl did say that [Leaf Dart] was one of his favorite offensive spells. But I only had a medium affinity in plant magic, while I had an excellent affinity in void magic.
The fact that the weapon it created only lasted for one second was a bit of a letdown, but I assumed that later spell upgrades would increase that time.
And I certainly didn’t want [Void Blade] to be one of the spells that disappeared on my next spell choice list. That was the only one that I couldn’t forgive myself if I missed the opportunity to learn it.
That settled it.
“I choose [Void Blade].”
The other spell choices faded away, and [Void Blade] floated up to join [Void Thread] on my spell list.
I took one last look at my status before turning in for the night.
Wizard - Level 2Mana: 300/300(Mana required to reach next level: 480)
Spells:[Void Thread] Level 1[Void Blade] Level 1
I awoke to the sounds of breakfast being made as the first hints of light began to manifest on the horizon. I walked into the communal kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
“Linli, make me a cup of that coffee, would ya?” Bagavash said as he flipped bacon in a pan.
“Make that two!” Myrl chimed in, slathering jam on a thick slice of sourdough.
“Aye, aye. I’m making a cup for everybody,” Linli said, pouring a kettle of steaming water through some cheesecloth that held roughly ground beans.
“You guys have coffee in this world?” I asked, suppressing a yawn and wandering over to the island table.
“Gnomish specialty,” Linli said as the hot water filtered down into a glass carafe. “These fools made fun of me for it for decades, always insisting they preferred their tea. Finally, I wore them down and convinced them to try a cup. Honestly, kind of regret it now. I’m going through four times as much, and this stuff ain’t cheap to import.”
“Linli is a master at this coffee,” Erl said, towering over the others and having to stoop so his head didn’t brush the ceiling. “We are very grateful for his gnomish ways.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Linli said. “Just remember that next time I suggest the snoring apparatus.”
Erl looked offended. “Snoring is a sign of power. It scares monsters away when your eyes cannot be open. I would never suppress such a thing.”
“Easy for you to say,” Linli muttered. “You don’t have to share a wall with yourself. Here, get yer coffee, you big apes.”
Linli had made six cups, including the steaming mug he held in his own hands. I was honored that I was included.
“Did you…” Erl began.
“Yes, I warmed the milk just like you like,” Linli said.
Erl looked giddy as he picked up his giant mug and sniffed the aroma. “Thank you, Linli. You truly work wonders with your roasted beans.”
“You know, for a big guy, you’re awfully picky,” Linli commented.
“I will never sacrifice quality in food,” Erl said proudly, puffing out his chest as best he could in the cramped kitchen. “It is one of the primary enjoyments in life.”
Myrl and I grabbed our respective mugs at the same time. He simply nodded to me. His eyes looked bleary and red.
Wake and bake before a rift raid?
These wizards were wild.
“Alright, you lot. Eat up,” Bagavash said, putting five plates loaded with bacon and eggs on the center island table. “We have a lot of ground to cover today.”
We all scarfed down our breakfast just standing around the counter. It reminded me of times back in college when my friends and I would wake up before dawn to go on a big hike.
When we were done, we all placed our dishes in the sink. I started to clean them, but Bagavash stayed my hand. “We can get to those when we get back. Here, I want you to take these. You’ll need them where we’re headed.”
He had three glass vials of red liquid dangling between the crooks of his fingers.
“Let me go get my backpack,” I said.
“Use your inventory. It’s safer.”
“I, uh… haven’t experimented with that yet,” I admitted.
“It’s easy,” Linli said, coming over to my side. “You know how you look at your stats? It’s the same feeling. Just go into that meditative state when you have something in your hand, and you can place it there.”
I took one of the potions from Bagavash and gave it a try. When I closed my eyes and eased myself into the meditative state, I could see a faint grid outline hovering next to my stats. The more I focused on it, the clearer it became.
I mentally reached out and… POP! the potion disappeared from my hand and showed up in the first square of the grid.
“That’s awesome,” I said, opening my eyes and grinning at the guys.
“He’s a natural,” Linli said.
I grabbed the other two health potions and added them to my inventory.
“Let’s get a move on,” Bagavash said. “The sun’s nearly up.”
It wasn’t until we crested the first hill that the first rays of the sun warmed our faces. I looked back at Bluebell Tower, illuminated in gold by the morning light, and hoped fiercely that I would make it back alive. I had never felt such belonging before and, while I was confident that my new wizard friends would do their best to protect me, I also knew that the quest we were setting out upon was dangerous, even for people like them.
“Congratulations on reaching level 2 by the way,” Linli said, keeping pace with the rest of us despite his small stride. “What spell did you end up choosing?”
“Oh, I forgot you guys could see my level,” I said. “Something called [Void Blade]. Have you guys ever heard of it?”
“Doesn’t sound familiar,” Linli said. “Myrl, you have like a hundred spells. Ever heard of [Void Blade]?”
Myrl was busy plucking a cherry blossom from a tree that we passed on the path. He inhaled the scent of the little flower deeply. “[Void Blade]? Never heard of it. Void magic is rare after all, but I assume it’s just a melee version of his thread spell, right?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Apparently, it turns my staff into a void knife of some sort.”
“Well, go on. Let’s see it,” Linli said, still hiking forward at a brisk pace.
“But I’ve never cast with a staff before,” I protested, already out of breath from the trek.
Each wizard was using their own staff as a walking stick, including me with my practice staff.
“It’s easy,” Linli said, pointing his staff at a roadside shrub. “[Lesser Enlarge].”
With those words, a lavender spell circle bloomed in front of his staff, and the shrub instantly grew to twice its previous height. The leaves trembled, as if enjoying this newfound stature.
“Myrl said it was like conducting a symphony with a club,” I countered
Bagavash chuckled from the front of the line. “Well said.”
“So what exactly is the meta?” I asked. “I mean, on a granular level, how do you cast a spell with a staff instead of tracing the spell circle out with your fingers?”
“It’s not as easy as Linli is making it out to be,” Erl said. “Think of it like your wand is spraying out bits of mana. You have to mentally shape the flow so that it ends up in the shape of the spell circle.”
“Alright,” I said. "Let me give it a try."
I pointed my staff off into the forest just in case I messed something up, and retrieved the spell circle for [Void Blade]. It was quite a bit more complicated than [Void Thread] with several different interlocking geometric shapes.
I pulled mana out of my core and channeled it down my arm, just like I’d done before, but this time, instead of pushing it out through my fingers, I channeled it into the staff. That part was surprisingly easy. The wood seemed to pull at the mana like some kind of conductor.
The hard part was shaping it as it flowed out the end. Rather than any recognizable spell circle, the white-blue mana just sprawled out across the air like a watercolor painting.
Linli laughed his ass off at that.
A moment later, the smear of magical energy dissipated. My mana reserves had dropped to 280/300.
I knew [Void Blade] cost 100 mana to cast, but apparently only some of the mana was used in the construction of the spell circle, and the rest was consumed when the spell was actually cast.
“Don’t worry, lad,” Erl said. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
The rest of the hike was spent with the wizards chatting and ribbing each other about various things. My mana slowly recovered as we hiked, and I tried casting with my staff a few more times. I realized that I needed to master this technique before we entered the rift. My spell circles gradually got better, but none were accurate enough to complete the spell.
As we hiked, the forest slowly transitioned from a healthy old-growth forest to a burn scar. Many trees were still left standing, but they were charred, lifeless things with no leaves to speak of. The undergrowth was recovering with splotches of green grasses growing out of the burned earth here and there, but for the most part, it looked like a wasteland.
It was clear we had entered the Charred Forest.
By midday we found it. A glowing red orb the size of a house floating within a grove of dead trees. It hummed with an ominous energy.
“Here we are, boys,” Bagavash said, halting a few paces away from it. “The Charred Forest Rift.”
We took up positions on either side of our leader, regarding the perverse orb with trepidation.
“Reports have it that this rift spawns goblins anywhere from level 1 to level 50,” he continued. “The plan is to collect as many of their orbs as possible before taking on the boss.”
Then he turned to me specifically.
“Things might get pretty intense in there, but stick behind us and you should be fine. We’ll toss you as many orbs as we can spare to get you leveled up quickly, but don’t expect too much. We have a hell of a quota to pay off.”
I nodded in understanding.
Bagavash made like he was going to step into the rift, then turned back to me.
“Oh, and if you see any lava-spitting spiders, run.”