Slow grinding that was what it was all about.
Alah’Dorah
High Elf
Level 1
Strength 7
Agility 8
Stamina 8 +1
Intellect 6
Spirit 7 +1
I sat up from my morning push ups wiping my hands before angling my hands and casting.
[Conjure Refreshment Lv.4 23/40]
The ‘glass’ bottle appeared and I popped the cork and washed my hands and poured the rest over my head. The cool water was still good for that at least.
Unfortunately it wasn’t… Tasty yet.
But having water on hand at any moment had a lot of uses, and it was improving. Every level was better.
I stood up and stretched. The sun was warm, the wind whispering through the trees was refreshing, and I didn’t have school today. Mama was off doing her Ranger duties, and Papa was as always distracted with enchanting.
He’d received a request from someone important, and had hidden himself away in his workshop for the last few days. Only coming out to check on me, when he remembered. Usually in a rush realizing he hadn’t been looking after me well.
It was cute.
My constant grinding had led to some benefits. My Mana pool had increased enough that I could actually cast [Holy Light Lv. 2] without passing out, and so I’d grinded through the entire second tier.
Unfortunately, the small increase in my Intelligence and so my Mana pool hadn’t kept up, and I was back to the same problem.
So once again my grind was halted as I had to focus on other things to keep going. It was frustrating, but okay for now. I could keep working on my fundamentals.
Mostly Enchanting as that was the one magical like skill I had not locked behind a mana pool.
[Enchanting Lv. 9 88/90]
I’d been grinding Enchanting, the new Whisper Band’s giving me easy cheap materials to cast on, and so my grind had increased drastically.
Almost level 10!
I winced at the light ache in my muscles and core. I was super low on mana, and unless I wanted to drink my conjured water, I should either go do something that didn’t need mana, or take a break.
So more enchanting it was!
I walked over to the old Pagoda platform and checked on my reagent harvest.
I’d been testing something, and it was a good time to see if I got a success. The idea of the Mana-Magnification idea had been eating at me, so I’d done some tests.
Unlike normal, I’d gone out a bit farther to collect more than just rocks and been testing different things to see how they absorbed the mana for reagent use.
My little Enchanting Notebook I’d started filling out was getting a lot of data, but nothing good so far.
Rocks were pretty good compared to most things. Most plants didn’t retain the mana well, instead actually absorbing the mana and using it, which led to bigger plants if they were still alive, or the plant just sort of wasting the energy trying to do things even as it died.
It was… Not great. But I’d managed to get something interesting to test it with.
A Sun Flower. Well not a sun flower from Earth, but a flower with bright red and orange petals that was popular here. It looked fiery and had that sort of mana for sure. So I’d collected a pot and put it in my sunlight sigil and left it for a month.
It had grown, absorbing mana and using it to fuel its growth, but unfortunately…
The mana didn’t get retained, it was burned away to fuel an effect by the living plant, so the experiment had been a failure.
I mean my Sun Flower had grown a lot and I had in the end sold it for some money which I’d instantly spent on another pot and flower, and a few other bits and bobs.
If nothing else I had found a way to sell large Sun Flowers and that was valuable.
The second Sun Flower hadn’t been put in the sunlight sigil, but the moonlight one.
It had been a month, and it was time to check out what had happened.
It hadn’t grown like crazy compared to the other one, but… I knelt down and looked over the flower and noticed that it just looked a bit odd.
The most important question was, did the different type of mana have a useful effect?
I took the flower and disenchanted it, the effect pulled the magical power the flower had gathered and as the flower disintegrated into dust, it came free in an interesting shimmering color.
Most of the Reagents I pulled from the rocks were either a moon dust color, or something like warm sand.
This was a bit different.
I grabbed a bowl I kept on hand and dumped the powder inside, getting a smaller amount than I would have liked, but at least I’d gotten something interesting out of it. I couldn’t recognize it, but I knew Papa would, so I’d ask him about it later.
Then I turned to the many many rocks that I had gathered. I’d some experiments outside of the flowers as well.
Did I get more powder from bigger rocks? Did leaving them to absorb mana for longer make a difference. Could I use the Reagents in some way to let the rocks absorb more mana?
Most of the answers were. Yes, but.
And the but was the problem. Yes bigger rocks could absorb more mana, but it took longer linearly. So if I wanted to harvest every morning then smaller rocks were better. Although I’d set up a few much larger rocks for long term gathering.
Yes the longer they absorbed sunlight or moonlight the more mana they gathered, but it very quickly started gathering so little that it was pointless.
Could I use powder Reagents to increase the speed an object gathered mana? Yes. If I created the Sigil with some powder I could increase the mana inside the sigil, but it used up the powder, and only converted the mana in a 1:1 shift, if I was lucky.
So if I had something I wanted to power up quickly, it would work, but otherwise just getting more powder for more enchanting was already useful.
I finished disenchanting my rocks and placing new ones before taking the bowls full of Reagents to the back porch where I had a bunch of Whisper Bands set out.
My Tailoring skill had improved for a while as I made them until it had eventually just stopped giving me XP, but it was still useful.
[Tailoring Lv. 5 1/50]
It was a nice skill to have anyways. If I was going to be an adventurer I should know how to fix a hole in my clothes!
Either way, I sat down in a comfy chair and started enchanting the Whisper Bands. I finished one, and sulked about not getting another level up.
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I’d started to struggle to get level ups with the basic enchantments I had. I’d need to bug Papa for a better one soon.
Either way, I could still level up, and so I kept hammering my head into it.
It took about four before I got a tick up.
[Enchanting Lv. 9 89/90]
Hehe! Then I just kept going, one, two, three, four.
Bing!
[Enchanting Lv. 10 1/100]
[Apprentice Enchanting has been learned!]
[Apprentice Enchanting: Reduce cost of Enchanting]
I sucked on my teeth as I felt it flow into my brain and more. Before this I had known how to do it, but now I had a much better understanding of why.
Why do I use specific Reagents for an enchantment? I knew bits from Papa, but now I had my own understanding. An understanding of the way Mana flowed and gathered into items, and how enchantments used that flow.
I knew that I could use less Reagents for the same enchantments now. I knew how to better form the enchantment…
Awesome.
I sat back and just let myself process what I’d just learned, and this was only apprentice? I really needed to learn more enchantments now!
“Today we’re going to learn a spell.” Ma’Rika called out and I jerked in my seat.
Spell!?
“Ugh.” Sav’Kinara groaned as she looked very uninterested. Ma’Rika sent her a smile.
“Don’t complain. You’re not learning the same spell as the others this time.” She offered and even Sav’Kinara, the moody teen that she was sat up straighter at the words.
“What? Really?”
“Yes. You’re old enough to be taught something else, besides you already know this spell. Mage Light. Is a very useful spell no matter your age, but all elflings should know it.”
I didn’t quite slump, because new magic was great, but I wanted something a bit better than Mage Light.
I kept a half eye on Sav’Kinara as she was handed a book by Ma’Rika, as the teacher then turned towards all of us, and started talking.
Mage Light was a basic spell. It taught some of the very basic mana manipulation skills, things like controlling Mana flow, and capturing mana so it didn’t just disperse.
All things I already knew thanks to Holy Light, and Conjure Refreshment.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t useful…
Yet, I couldn’t help but look at Sav’Kinara. I grabbed a piece of paper even as Ma’Rika started teaching the basics, which I already knew, and made a little note.
Then I passed it to Sav’Kinara, her noticing the paper had her look up at me, and I sent her an innocent look.
She snorted, and popped the note and looked it over, and instead of writing yes or no on the note like she was supposed to! She just folded it back up and focused on her book.
Rude! That went against the rules of the classroom!
Either way I huffed and focused on what Ma’Rika was teaching even if it took a while for Kimi and Hinky to figure out the basics, and so I spent a rather boring morning just following basic mana control instructions that we all were supposed to already know.
But then Ma’Rika got to the next part and not a few moments after she gave the instructions I opened my palms to a completed spell.
[Spell Learned: Mage Light]
The purplish colored light glowed between my palms, and I grinned as it didn’t take much to make me realize I could do a few things.
I opened and closed my palms and then had a red light.
Then gold, then blue, then white.
“Uuuugh!” I heard just before Kimi looked like she was going to throw something at me, but stopped herself. “Don’t be a jerk Dora!”
“Sorry Kimi.” I whispered back, holding up my hands in an apology. “Want some tips?”
“Yes!” She agreed and soon I moved over as Ma’Rika helped Hinky, and I walked her through casting a spell, it was nice.
“Hold it!” I called out coming around the corner as Sav’Kinara walked home after class.
“Oh it’s you. Okay what do you want?”
“You know what I want! Let’s make a deal!”
“Not a chance. This isn’t a spell for kids, and Ma’Rika will murder me.”
“You know I’m reliable. Tell me what spell they showed you.”
“Not a chance. It’s Mana Bolt. I’m not giving a three year old a combat spell.”
“I’m not three.” I denied and was just irritated because denying how young you are always made you sound young!
“Yeah whatever. Besides, the book is part of the class, you’ll learn it, and I have to turn it back in to Ma’Rika later. Sorry nerd.”
“Jerk!” I hissed at her, and watched her saunter off.
Whatever! It was probably a stupid lame spell anyways!
I walked home, definitely not pouting the whole way and flopped onto the sitting chair downstairs.
Hmph!
“What’s wrong?” I was startled by the voice and looked up to see Papa.
“You’re out here?”
“I’m out here.” He agreed sipping on something that might be tea, or it might just be warm water. Depending on how distracted my father was at the time.
“Did you finish your order?’
“Hmm? Oh yes, all finished up. I sent it out by courier this morning. An interesting order, an illusion spell integrated into a hairclip. Fascinating idea, needing to adjust depending on the dress of the wearer.” I
I just smiled and settled in besides Papa as he started chattering about his project now that it was finished.
Oh well. Sav’Kinara’s stupid Mana Bolt spell wasn’t needed. It was probably lame anyways.
I seethed a bit as I watched Sav’Kinara practice her awesome Mana Bolt spell in the area outside the school. While the rest of us kids were still practicing Mage Light, she was literally throwing around blasts of awesome mana and power!
I wasn’t jealous or anything, just because I was glaring at her like I could light Sav’Kinara’s stupid robe on fire, had nothing to do with her refusing to help me reach new Arcane powers!
“Dora!”
“Yes Kimi?” I asked never stopping my glare, finding out if I had laser eyes or something would be useful.
“You’re not being very fun Dora.” Kimi finally said and I looked away, no laser eyes, to see my friend pouting at me. The Mage Light in her hand was still a stable color, instead of being able to change it like I already could.
“Sorry… Are you still struggling?”
“No! I just… Want to know how to make it pink.”
I nodded, and finally tore myself away from my not jealousy, and focused on my friend, and practicing my new spell.
“Okay so Mage Light is mostly visualization, but the spell does have part of the spell system that you need to alter to get-”
“Dooooorraaaaaa!”
I blinked at Kimi’ s pouty almost teary eyed look.
Right. She was young.
“Okay so when you cast the spell, twist the mana. Here let me show you.” I said pulling in her hand, and casting the spell with her palm on mine, causing a pink light to appear above her hand.
“I felt that!”
“Yeah, we’re mana sensitive. So just copy what I did.”
“Right… I can do that.” She puffed up like she was about to poop, at least that’s what it looked like and then I felt her mana flow out.
The Mage Light popped into existance, but it wasn’t quite pink.
“Almost! Try one more time!” I assured her, instantly so she couldn’t get pouty about her failure. “Feel my mana.” I reminded her and cast it again, before extinguishing it, and then Kimi nodded and slowly she pushed the mana up, it felt… wavey. Like she was struggling to control the mana flowing through her.
Then it popped up, and the light was… Pink… Ish.
“I did it!” Kimi screamed excited, and I relaxed as long as she was happy. She’d get better at it as she practiced anyways.
“You did!” I cheered and then I was tackle hugged as my friend cheered at her success.
I just smiled. Kimi was always excitable, and I was happy for her.
Now of course there was my own practice.
[Mage Light LV 2 8/20]
I’d leveled the spell up. It barely took any mana after all, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to keep working on it? It felt like a waste of Mana.
But then I looked around and Ma’Rika would definitely not be happy if she caught me casting other spells.
So as Kimi started playing with her pink-ish light, I started rapid fire casting the spell.
Open palm, light on. Close palm, light off.
Over and over. The amount of mana needed was miniscule. So as Kimi distracted herself, and I had nothing else to do, I simply kept casting the spell. Letting the numbers go up, as I kept focused. Honestly it was at least night to have the numbers racing up so quickly, some skills took forever to get anywhere. Holy Light was still Lv 3, and I wasn’t able to gather enough Mana to cast it still.
Frustrating! How was I supposed to be strong enough to crush armies of bad guys if I couldn’t cast a basic healing spell?
Level 3 Mage Light, made the light brighter.
Level 4 Made it float higher illuminating a larger area.
I kept going, the mana difference was increasing, but compared to even a level 2 Holy Light, it was laughable.
I was rapid firing the spell, the levels shooting up when suddenly a hand clamped on my shoulder.
“Eeee!” I startled in surprise looking up to see Ma’Rika.
“Dora… Stop for me. Okay?” She asked gently, and I blinked looking around. Everyone was looking at me, and at the very large Mage Light above me, that was bathing the entire forest in a crimson, light.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m happy to see you so excited to learn, and to practice, and to get so good with a spell so quickly, but you are scaring everyone.”
I just nodded and Ma’Rika’s eyes crinkled up. “Good job Dora.”
“Thanks?”
She patted me on the head and then went back to settling everyone else. Some of them were even pouting at me, as they looked at their own far less impressive Mage Light.
Oops.
That afternoon I got home, processed my Enchanting dust, and made another stack of Whisper Bands which got thrown into a tub with the rest of them for now.
I was still needing to find a better enchantment, and while I should have asked Papa about it yesterday, I was more happy just to spend time with him since he finished his project.
Today though? I flopped onto the back porch, and just cast Mage Light.
It was nice to be able to so quickly level up something, and who knows, I might need a really really bright light some day. So while it was so hard to level up my other spells, why not waste some time grinding this one.
Light on, light off.
Over and over. I was happy Mama wasn’t home cause she’d definitely have told me to quite it, but Papa was distracted and I had the afternoon to practice.
Level 8.
Level 9.
The spell actually started getting a little draining now. I had to stop and head inside, and grab some lemon water that we had prepared, and took a cup. I wish I could just take the whole jug, or better yet make lots of it myself, but Mama would get upset if I drank all the special tasty water….
Again.
I’d promised not to just drink all the water in the house. So there.
But a glass was of course acceptable, and the Lemon Water let me restore my Mana super quickly.
I could take a sip or two, and with a minute or so have my Mana back.
So I kept on the grind.
Humming a happy song as I kicked my feet and looked out over our pretty back yard while I restored Mana and then cast a bunch again.
And then it hit level 10.
I felt a jolt, and shivered a bit as I felt something flow through me.
[Mage Light Mastered]
[Mage Light Mastery: +5 Intellect]
I blinked. Looking up in the twirling crimson sphere that lit up the entire back yard red, and then back at the update….
I…
OH MY.
YOU GOT BONUSES FROM HITTING LEVEL 10 WITH SPELLS!?