Orrin spent the morning after Silas’ announcement considering his skills and spell.

He had assumed they would be able to get another fight or two in, possible giving him more ability points and more options. But with Silas’ plan to send them away to avoid a Wall horde, the lack of actionable monster sightings, and Brandt’s near constant patrols to get fresh information, Orrin decided he was better off spending the points to level an existing ability.

Would you like to Upgrade [Increase Strength] (5,000/5,000) for 3AP?

Yes or No?

Yes.

Would you like to Upgrade [Increase Intelligence] (5,000/5,000) for 3AP?

Yes or No?

Yes.

Orrin decided Intelligence would be better to increase, as he could cast it on himself and reduce his MP costs. He’d spend more on himself, so that the entire party would benefit.

[Increase Strength] Level 3 (0/10,000): increase target Strength by +4 for 20 minutes. (15 MP) [Increase Intelligence] Level 3 (0/10,000): increase target Intelligence by +4 for 20 minutes. (15 MP)

Wow, Orrin was surprised. The bonus doubled, the time doubled, and the cost only went up by five mana.

Orrin used some scrap paper left over from deciphering the hero book to do math. His Will was at 13 and his Intelligence was at 11. [Increase Intelligence] should normally give plus four, but with his Will at 13, the number would actually bump up to five. One point three times four should mean five point two increased Intelligence. Twenty-five extra Intelligence on top of my eleven!

At thirty-six Intelligence total, any spell would be cast at three-quarters of the normal cost. Orrin checked his math again. Base cost of spell times (100 minus (36-10))/100 = Base cost times 74%.

So I could cast [Ward] on everyone before we go into the dungeon for only 75 MP and cast [Utility Ward] at level one on everyone as well. I could even give Daniel twenty minutes of plus twenty-five strength for only a bit over fifty-five-ish MP. I need to figure out the math on that.

Orrin sat with numbers running through his head and sighed. “This is too much math without [Mind Bastion] running.”

Daniel, who was re-reading the hero book on the bed, looked up. “What is too much math?”

“I bought level three strength and intelligence, but I don’t want to do more math to figure out exactly what I could cast. I think I can boost myself to make spells cheaper, get a [Ward] on everyone to give more breathing room in the dungeon, and get a [Utility Ward] on us as well, but that about uses my entire pool and only lasts a little bit.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to cast [Utility Ward] on everybody before [Ward]? That way, you would get the Will bonus and your MP would be higher?” Daniel asked distractedly.

“That would be genius if my increase made my MP pool higher, but it only affects my spell output,” Orrin threw down the pencil. “I hate just waiting around.”

“Why don’t you do something with those gross mushrooms,” Daniel waved in the direction of Orrin’s backpack. “They are starting to stink up the room anyways.”

Orrin slapped his head. He’d completely forgotten about the Regen potions.

“You totally forgot about the potions didn’t you.” Daniel looked up from his book grinning.

“...No,” Orrin responded unconvincingly. He yanked the book out of Daniel’s hands. “I’ll be needing this.”

Daniel sighed and stood with a stretch. “That’s fine. I’m so done trying to figure out all the rest of the nonsense they talk about. It’s like reading the comments section on a superhero movie review. Everyone is arguing that only they have the best interpretation of what is best. I still can’t figure out if I’m supposed to get more upgrades every ten levels or if it is just a fluke from a few different Hero builds.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Orrin said as he flipped through the pages. “Oh, that reminds me. Are you going to share the level twenty quest with Brandt?”

“You want to test out if you’ll get something at level ten?”

Orrin nodded.

“If you think it’s a good idea, I don’t see why not,” Daniel shrugged. “Should I try to extort our evil overlord? Maybe give it to Madi and Jude too?”

Orrin paused in his reading and looked up. “Maybe just share it with all three of them at once. Do it as a good faith gesture. It’s likely they won’t get anything at level twenty, but it might keep Silas from asking after the reason you are here.”

“You mean the Demon Lord or the war?”

“Both,” Orrin shrugged. “Eventually, he is going to get pushy. You can show him the war in Odrana quest when you have to, but, to be honest, I have no idea what we could do to stop a war.”

Daniel picked up a book from his own stack from the library. Orrin had forced him to go research more on anything but Daniel had not shared any actual useful information yet.

“I tried reading through this.” Daniel crossed the room and left it on Orrin’s nightstand. “It goes into the politics of the different countries and the race relations between the Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and humans. I’ll be honest, it’s dry and totally stilted.”

“How do you mean?” Orrin asked as he picked the book up and read the cover. Beyond Borders: Relationships Between The Races.

“The author blames a lot of stuff on the other races. He basically said that anyone can make it in this world with hard work and implies they just don’t try as hard.”

“That sounds a bit fucked up.” Orrin flipped through the pages. It did look a little dense.

“He gives a good overview of relations between each country and the ‘preserves’ that the main populations of the Orcs, Dwarves, and Elves live on. But when he starts talking about the races individually...big ooph.”

“Racist?”

“Yeah. Real privileged energy.”

“Great,” Orrin said sarcastically and rubbed his eyes. “I’m guessing you found out more about Odrana and this war?”

“Not directly.” Daniel was clasping his armor on. “I asked Jude about it. He told me. It fits with a little bit of what’s in there but something is missing.”

Orrin tossed the book back on the nightstand. “Can you give me the highlights before you go meet Brandt for your daily beat downs?”

“Ha,” Daniel chuckled. “I’m taking him out about half the time now.”

“Odrana?” Orrin prompted.

“Odrana is a neighbor of Dey. They are actually the only real border country, as the bottom third of Dey’s lands run up against the forest we arrived in. It’s technically the Untamed Forest but everyone just calls it the Forest. Odrana covers most of the lands east and north, all the way to the sea. It’s pretty massive. I got a peek at Silas’ map and Dey is about one-twentieth the size.”

“So who are they fighting? The other country, what was it called again?”

“Veskar? No. They are the other superpower country but that border is actually pretty secure according to Jude. Odrana is fighting the Elves. The Elven nations live in a big forest north of Dey and in the top corner of Odrana’s lands. Everybody has always considered it a small sovereign nation, but Odrana has been pushing the forests back I guess. Or the Elves attacked first to create more forest. The rumors fly both ways.”

“So a human and Elf war. That sounds super original,” Orrin muttered as he picked up the ingredients for the Regen potion.

“You going to come by and work on your sword skills more later? I still think you should take [Sword Proficiency].”

Orrin dropped a handful of the mushrooms he bought into his mortar. “I’ll stop by once I make a few of these potions. I want to see how far I can push myself. Regenerated mana doesn’t count as a new pool, so I might be able to increase how many spells I can cast a day.”

Daniel paused, “As long as you don’t go and-“

“Yes dad, I’ll be keeping [Mind Bastion] off.”

Daniel just rolled his eyes and went to find Brandt.

A few hours later, Orrin finished his first batch of Regen Potion. He had ground the mushrooms into powder, boiled water, and then using a small sieve he’d borrowed from Silas, run the hot water over the powder.

According to the book, this first ‘cleanse’ would take out all the poison from the mushrooms.

For a minute, Orrin considered finding a real [Alchemist] and having them make this instead. Ingesting poison mushrooms at the behest of an ancient dead [Hero] was terrifying.

The book was clear though, this step, if done correctly, would remove any toxicity from the mushrooms and leave behind the first step to creating Regen Potions. He had to wait for the powder to dry again over the small candle he had just for this.

He kept an eye on the candle to make sure none of the powder burned and was wasted. He moved it in small circles, following the book’s recommendation of every five minutes for an hour.

Finally, the powder turned white again from the wet grey damp it had been. Orrin removed the candle.

Next, take the white residue and mix with the 10 grams of leaves of a blueberry bush.

Crush in the 5 grams of hips from redthorn flowers.

Add 5 grams of purified water and mash into a paste.

Orrin had picked up the different ingredients from four different shops, just as the book suggested. This [Hero] might have been more paranoid than he was. Orrin appreciated the thought process as he mixed and crushed the different bits.

Spread the paste evenly into eight 10 mL bottles. Add an additional 5 grams of purified water to each bottle. Shake.

Orrin used a tiny spoon no longer than his finger to scoop the paste into each bottle, stopping once each was half filled. He topped each bottle off with the large beaker of purified water he had and shook each little glass vial separately.

Now for the dangerous part, Orrin groaned at having to be his own guinea pig.

Daniel and Brandt were still going at it when Orrin arrived. Brandt noticed him first and signaled for Daniel to stop.

“Good afternoon, Orrin,” Brandt was breathing a little heavier than he would have been even a few days ago. “What brings you out today? Want to go a few rounds?”

Daniel chuckled and sat heavily on the ground.

“Actually, I was hoping to cast a few spells and try out a potion I made.” Orrin waved the goopy looking vial.

“Sure?” Brandt answered confused. “Do you need us?”

Orrin cracked the fingers on one hand and then the other. “Just get me to a [Healer] if I start shaking.”

“Wait, what?”

Orrin chugged the potion and started casting all his most expensive spells.

He started with [Increase Intelligence] Level 3, five times on himself. Normal cost 15 MP per cast. Total cost 75 MP. But now his Intelligence was sitting at 36.

MP 155/230

Orrin watched as his MP started ticking up one every second.

It works!

He cast [Increase Strength] Level 3 on Daniel five times. Normal Cost 15 MP. With his Intelligence at 36, he only spent 55 MP. He slapped another five [Increase Strength] spells on Brandt too.

Only ten seconds had passed and his MP was down to under one hundred but swiftly climbing back up.

“You’re smiling like you found a secret cheat or something,” Daniel smirked.

Orrin smiled and pulled up his status. Time to max out everything he could.

Since the potion only lasted one hour, Orrin planned to use every second. He would keep his own Intelligence maxed out the entire time to reduce the actual cost. He should be able to regenerate 3,600 MP. Since casting a spell gave the entire cost as experience for leveling that spell, even when the cost was reduced, he could probably increase the total experience output by twenty-four percent.

Almost 4,500 points to his spells.

Except Orrin forgot one thing, he could level [Increase Strength] and [Increase Intelligence] using only the three of them. And the spell lasted 20 minutes. So he could only cast a full set three times each. He had nothing else to level...except [Teleport].

“You guys want to go on a trip?”