Arcane Thief 3. Magic Skills

Null’s accommodations were, for the lack of a better word, bare. There was nothing in the living room, and when he’d looked around the complex he’d only found a chest and a bed in his bedroom. His apartment was part modern, part something he was most likely to see in some fantasy tavern. There was a large fireplace on one side of the room, a luxury allowed to the apartments in Retissia since they were all located on the ground level. The floor was composed of a polished light wood, which reflected the light of the everlamp on the ceiling to create a glowing effect throughout the room. The lamp itself was little more than a simple crystal wrapped in a metal harness, glowing white when it was estimated to be day time and a soft blue when it was thought to be night. His Smart Box already told him the time of day, however, so he saw it as little more than a small visual trick the developers wanted to show off. He had to admit though, he was a little impressed. There was also a pair of japanese style sliding doors that led out into a small meditative garden where players could experiment and study their magics in peace. It was where he currently was, sitting on a small plot of small grass that he assumed he could customize later. Under the massive star filled sky of Retissia, there was not much need for any sort of illumination outside, for the starlight washed away the shadows of the city, which took some time to get used to.

He was currently looking at his abilities under the Skills tab of his Status menu.

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Combat Skill Proficiencies:

Hand-to-Hand: Level 1

Swordsmanship: Level 1

Dual Wielding: Level 1

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He’d picked up a couple of combat skills from the training hall at the Academy, but left before any of the instructors, player or npcs, could begin to teach him. He didn’t need their instruction, for even if the motions were impossible for him to do in the real world, for now, he had a feeling that he’d only need to go through the basic motions of a few forms to get used to things again. He actually felt a little excited about it, but pushed the thoughts back and focused on the books in front of him. On the grass lay The Basics of Arcane Magic and Magic Cultivation. According to what he’d looked up online, learning skills from magic books was as simple as opening the pages and meditating in front of them. The more isolated the area, the stronger the effects of the meditation and the faster he’d learn the skills. Given that the rest of the players were probably off learning in groups at the Academy, there was no noise coming from over the walls that separated the private gardens from one another. Which meant that now was the ideal time to learn from these books.

He flipped open the pages of The Basics of Arcane Magic, its words written in a script that he couldn’t hope to understand. Of course, no one in this world could actually read what was written down on these books, for the runic patterns on the pages were written in Mindscript, which imparted knowledge directly into the reader’s mind as they meditated in front of it. Obviously this was some hand waving explanation by the developers to explain the speed at which people in this world learned magic, but Null couldn’t help but find the idea fascinating. He closed his eyes and cupped his hands at the center of his waist, entering into a state of meditation as he slowed his breathes. For a short while, there was nothing except the ambience of chirping insects and the occasional gust of wind that occupied his mind. In this state he thought of nothing else but the book that lay in front of him, visualizing the Mindscript runes in his mind, thinking that may be the way for him to activate it. Of course, that was probably wrong, since the game couldn’t read his mind to tell such things, but it helped him focus. Whether in response to his visualization or a simple process of the games algorithms detecting his pose and vitals as a form of meditation, he heard the pages of the book starting to flap. There was a temptation to open his eyes, but he was unsure if he should. Doing so could stop the process altogether, forcing him to restart the process all over again. He pushed the temptation from his mind and controlled his breathing once again, then the tingling started. It was a small shiver down his spine, the kind one would feel if someone whispered something into their ear, and as the process went on longer it settled as a small buzz that lay over his skin. The feeling was soothing, in a way, and easy for Null to get lost into.

Eventually the tingling stopped, though he wasn’t sure how long he’d been meditating. When he opened his eyes, there were small, glowing runes flying from the pages of the book at up to his face. A purplish arcane glow had encompassed both him and the book, which must have been the source of the feeling he felt before. The glowing soon stopped, however, and the runes dissipated into small specks of light that dispersed out into the night sky. The Mindscript on the pages still remained, the window that popped up in front of him told Null that he would need it no longer.

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Magic Skill: Arcane Magic

May the bounty of nature lay at your fingertips.

Proficiency in Arcane Magic allows the user to draw in the arcane energy from nature for use in spells and sigils. Unlocks spells and sigils.

Level 1 Proficiency:

Ability to use Arcane Magic spells

5% Increase in Arcane Magic damage

Will you accept this skill?

Yes/No

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With more enthusiasm than he was willing to admit, he hit yes. As the window closed he felt a tingling sensation travel up his right arm. He rolled the sleeves up, seeing that parts of his skin were now glowing. Then the light faded from his skin, he was left with a series of tattoos traveling up his arm. They wrapped around his arm in three bands of black ink, a series words written in a rigid script that he didn’t understand scrawled in between the alternating layers of lines. At the center of each band was a combination of runes. There was also a new tattoo on the back of his hand, its design in three parts and similar to something that looked what he assumed to be arcane in nature. Not sure what that really meant, he ignored it for now and opened his Status menu, where there was now a separate Spells tab now available for him to open.

When he opened the new tab and was greeted by menu split into two parts. On the left side was a list of spells that he assumed were the default ones belonging to his branch of magic. There was Torch, Fireball, Spark, Freeze and Stalagmite. On the right were three blank slots with a small circle located to the right of their boxes. He hovered his finger over the Torch spell and placed it into one of the slots.

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Please register a gesture for this spell:

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Below the new prompt window was a small, holographic orb that he assumed was where he was to perform the gesture. He placed his hand inside of it, deciding to experiment with a simple snap.

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Gesture registered.

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Curious, Null held his hand out from him and snapped his fingers. A small tongue of flame sparked right above his thumb, hovering for a while before it floated off to his side and growing into a big enough flame to cast a glow over the entire garden. It didn’t let off any heat, but the effect was cool enough that he did it multiple times before he couldn’t anymore. It was then that he noticed at the corner of his vision a small blue bar that was slowly refilling. He assumed it was his mana gauge, and waited for it to refill completely before he tried the spell out again. As he cast Torch, the bar went down a small tick, pausing before starting to refill.

“Right, so there is a delay before my mana regens, guess that means I can’t go casting spells left and right.”

He registered a series of gestures for the rest of his spells, mainly with his fingers so he could use magic while wielding a dagger off handedly. There was also the option to hide his tattoos in the menu, but he decided to keep them on display. As tempting as is was to start casting spells, practice would have to wait till he was outside of the city walls. Flinging a fireball in the confines of his home didn’t seem like the smart thing for him to do.

Before venturing outside, however, Null had one more skill to learn. He put the Magic Cultivation book in front of him and opened its pages, exposing the Mindscript to the open air. Once again he started to meditate, the buzz humming over him as the pages of the book began to flap. The process was longer this time, though he wasn’t sure how much longer, but Null enjoyed the process somewhat. It was soothing, a small window where he could clear his mind and forget about the things that were bothering him, of which there were many. No, for that brief moment he was just playing a video game, and for now, it was enough.

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Magic Skill: Magic Cultivation

The path to power in a long one. This will help you along.

Magic Cultivation is a passive skill that will allows the user to strengthen their mana pool through meditation. This skill synergizes with all types of magic.

Level 1 Proficiency:

10% Increase in Mana recovery when meditating.

Mana Pool increases by 1 every hour of meditation

5% increase in learning speed from magic tomes

Will you accept this skill?

Yes/No

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Null stared at the window for a long time. At face value, there wasn’t much use to this skill. The incremental increases to his mana pool could be useful, but at the same time the hour long requirement was not something he was keen on scheduling. That would drastically slow down his play time if he only focused on increasing his mana pool, and he was already aware that his mana pool would naturally increase if he used spells on a regular basis. The skill itself was basically redundant, but…

He selected yes.

“There has got to be something to this skill…”

With the skill learned, Null drained his mana by casting Torch multiple times. He started to meditate again, the tingling feeling returning for a small moment before stopping. When he opened his eyes, he saw that his mana pool was filled. He scratched his chin, thinking.

“Lets see… if it takes about ten seconds to charge the small amount of mana I have, and I drain my mana pool after every fight, that leaves a total of… 3600 battles for 1 point of extra Mana if I just meditate to recover. That’s… pretty useless.” Null sighed, “Well there is no turning back now. Guess I’ll just keep this in the background for now.”

Null returned the books to his inventory and stood up, stretching out his legs with a long, drawn out groan. He wasn’t sure how they had done it, but the game perfectly replicated any feeling he could feel back in the real world, which was both amazing, but concerning at the same time. He could lose himself in this world, but his actual body was frail enough as it was. He couldn’t allow it to waste away, lost in this other world. Granted, it wasn’t like his time in the game was limited. The time dilation in this game meant that four hours in the game was an hour in real life, so he could reliably spend around four hours a day for sixteen hours in the game.

He started to hop up and down, bouncing back and forth like he was a boxer in a ring, squaring up his opponent. He threw a few kicks into the air, the sharpness of the movement emphasized by the crisp, cutting sounds of his clothes. He followed it up with a few punches, alternating between different styles and stances that like he would have normally done in the past. Beyond the punches and kicks, however, he knew his movement in those styles were clumsy, out of practice. Yet… he was smiling.

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The fields outside Retissia were generally brimming with wildlife and players alike. Null’s Smart Box frequently glowed while in the confines of the opening area, and that was no surprise. Many players, most likely newbies like him, were formed up in groups across the grassy plains attacks a number of mobs that, for the most part, looked about as threatening as he’d expected. The most common mob on the plains were a number of hound-like beasts with large protrusions across the back of theirs spines and a large horn jutting out of their foreheads. The name Spinehound was a bit on the nose, in his opinion, but he could not argue with how well it suited the beasts. Of course, there were a number of other beasts, such as the large, ox-like beings that roamed the plains like buffalo, but with furs ranging from red to yellow, like tree leaves in the autumn. He noticed a few rodents scurrying around as well, but never caught a good enough view of them to tell how they looked. A few avian species flew in the skies above, but, much like the rodents, they flew off into the distance before he could get a good look at them. A forest lay in the distance, some ways away from the city walls and more likely to have a larger variety of flora and fauna, but, for now, Null had other goals in mind.

No, Null had stepped outside of the city to test his abilities. On his way out he picked up a new set of armor that was an oddly fitting combination of a hoodie and leather armor. He traded his work jeans for a thicker pair of cargo pants that he wore over a pair of thick combat boots. With the last of his starting allowance, he purchased a pair of fingerless leather gloves that gave him a boost in defense but didn’t impede the movement of his fingers. He wasn’t sure how much of what he was wearing was practical, but it suited his own needs just fine. He didn’t purchase any new weapons, as the starting short sword and dagger he was given upon choosing his combat skills was enough to provide a small boost to his attack. He checked his status screen once again:

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Name: Null

Class: Freeform

Title: N/A

Health: 100

Mana: 10

Hunger: Sated

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Constitution: 10

Speed: 10

Wisdom: 10

Total Attack: 17.5

Total Defense: 30

Combat Fame: 0

Merchant Fame: 0

Craftsman Fame: 0

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Satisfied with his stats, he closed the screen ventured deeper into the fields. The odds of him finding a fair fight in the starting area were low since he was without a group and the majority of mobs in this area were currently engaged with other players, so he made his way closer to the coast of the Black River that lay a little ways off to the side. A fitting name, for the water was so clear that the dark, black rocks below looked as if they were not sitting in water at all. It still remained within the vicinity of the city walls, so the mobs located there were still a low level, and remained the same as they had been in the plains, but there was far less players to worry about while he was there.

He spotted a lone Spinehound near the river, taking a drink from the water and unaware of his presence. Smirking to himself, Null drew his short sword with his right hand and his dagger with his left. He crouched close to the ground, slowly creeping towards the beast, keeping his breaths shallow as to not make a sound. When he was close enough, he when through the gestures to cast Fireball in his left hand and held it up. The runes along his arm glowed a bright red, so bright it was easily seen through his armor. Fire gathered in the air in front of his palm, condensing into the size of a softball before flying at the Spinehound with a whip sound. Null quickly glanced at his mana bar and found that half of it drained from the effort.

The fireball struck the Spinehound right in the back. It let out a howl of pain as the Lifebar above its body drained to half empty and changed from a green to red color. The force of the spell had almost knocked the beast into the water, but it dug its paws into the ground before it could slip in. The beast snarled at Null, who readied his weapons in front of him.

“Come on!” He growled through grit teeth.

The Spinehound leapt at him, the simple charge of a raging beast. While Null had not been in a real fight in a long time, his instincts were still sharp enough to react. He stepped to the side, swiping at the beast’s side with his short sword, leaving a long, faint red line across the hound’s flank. There was no blood in Ellios Online, only a damage marker to indicate where the damage had been dealt by weapons.

Null had expected the Spinehound gear up for another charge, but instead the monster stopped right in front of him, kicking its feet off the ground and driving its spikes into his chest. It was an unexpected movement, one that caught him with his guard completely off guard, but the resulting wound did not result in the pain he was envisioning. Instead, he felt a sharp jolt through his system, enough to make him feel a sharp sensation of pain, but not the piercing pain he’d braced himself for. The force from the blow, however, was not lessened, and he fell back, rolling back on his feet as he hit the ground. A couple of light red spots were on his chest, presumably from where the beast struck him.

The sensation he felt had triggered something within him. His vision grew clearer, and his breathing started to quicken from the rush of adrenaline flowing through his system. He wasn’t quite sure how the game was capable of relaying such feelings, but he didn’t care. Instead, Null flashed a grin at his opponent and roared. The Spinehound howled, and charged at him. Null readied his weapons, and lunged at the beast.

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