Pain exploded in my broken ribs and I gasped as my eyes popped open. My world swirled crazily before I came awake realizing where I was. My eyes finally settled on the wand a few inches from my nose. Lighting crackled up and down it’s length and concentrated on the tip. I followed it’s length to the hand holding it, up the arm and met Hanna’s furious brown eyes.

“What did you do!” She shouted.

I honestly had no idea what the hell was going on, but my shock was quickly turning to anger and my sarcasm kicked into gear before my reason.

“Errrrrr…. That’s a rather broad question to ask someone after they first woke up. Especially someone you just kicked in the BROKEN RIBS!” I shouted back.

Jesus that hurts.

She tried to kick me again but I caught her foot and twisted, forcing her body to turn with the motion until she fell. I wound my legs around hers trapping her knee and putting her into a figure-four leg lock.

“Now can we discuss this like reasonable adults?” I asked panting. While I gritted my teeth against the agony rocketing through my chest. I had no idea what had happened. She hadn’t been friendly yesterday but I’d at least thought we were on the same team now. She struggled and I applied a bit of pressure on her knee causing Hanna to yelp in pain.

“Just stop….” I commanded. “Other wise I’m going to make sure you don’t kick anyone ever again.” She snarled and her eyes narrowed. That wasn’t the reaction I was going for.

“So be it, Witch” The wand tip still pointed in my direction began to brighten.

“What?! Are you Cra…...” I started, but my words were interrupted by a blinding flash of white.

………………………………………………………………….

I awoke to warmth and the faint smell of wildflowers. My eyes felt gummy and my brain scrambled. I shifted my weight, trying to take stock of my surroundings and felt soft curves beneath me. I moved subconsciously sniffing until I found what I was looking for. I pressed my nose against soft skin and inhaled deeply.

Woman….

The thought rattled around my dazed brain, and I wrapped my arms around the body under me, while pressing a kiss against the soft skin. It felt so good, I just wanted to revel in the warmth and that sweet smell, ignoring the pain my chest and the smell of burnt flesh…….

Burnt Flesh?…..

My eyes popped open and I found my face buried in Hanna’s neck. I rolled off her. I stood up then inspected myself. My shirt sported a wide hole in the middle of my chest. The edges of the hole blackened and I could see blistered and burned skin beneath.

That crazy woman had blasted me with a lighting bolt from a foot away. I opened my game log and inspected the damage.

Hanna McCray has dealt 70 Lightning damage to User

User Has entered Critical Status

User is Unconscious

User had Regained 1 Hp

User has Regained 1 Hp

User has Regained 1 Hp

User has Regained 1 Hp

User has Regained 1 Hp

User has Regained 1 Hp

User is now Sleeping

She’d almost killed me. 70 damage had taken me down to -6 HP. That was the lowest my HP had ever gotten.

Crazy Bitch…..

I reached over and checked her pulse. I thought I remembered her breathing while I was on top of her but it never hurt to make sure. I shook my head. She was lucky she hadn’t killed both of us. I’d had her in a leg lock when she’d thrown the spell. She must have gotten a good dose of damage as well.

What the hell was she thinking?

I thought we’d been getting along at least. Then she wakes me up with a kick in the ribs, calls me a witch, and proceeds to blast me. The witchcraft skill said it would lower my reputation with NPC’s but it was hard to reconcile the whole thing. She was an NPC but then again she wasn’t. She had thoughts, feelings, and a complete personality as far as I could tell. Seemed off that a game skill would sour things so quickly.

Shrugging I sat down on the ground and opened more menu’s. It appeared I was back where I started last night. Although the extra hours had finally healed my ribs, but the burnt skin on my chest hurt like hell.

I was sorting through the menu’s when I found something interesting in the log. Judging by the time stamps it had apparently happened last night while I was unconscious.

Server Update Complete. Patch V0.9827e Online.

Sorcerer Has been Unlocked as a Base Class

User Has Earned Achievement First Witch!

User Has Been Granted Title Father of the First Circle

User Has Gained 100 Fame!

Witchcraft is now a Secondary Skill!

User has Gained Item Witchcraft for Noobs

Interesting…...

So they’d rolled out a patch last night and apparently made sorcerer a base class. That made sense considering what I’d gone through to cast my first spell. I’d been the first person to ever unlock witchcraft. They must have added the achievement with the patch as well, which was odd. Were they watching me? That was a rather disturbing thought.The title was certainly nice, but I had no idea what a Secondary Skill was or did. I got up off the ground and sat on the boulder I’d drug over last night.

I pulled the new Item out of my bag and read the title Witchcraft for Noob’s. I cracked the first page and started to read. It was a rather interesting book and outlined the basics of the craft. How to draw a basic circle, what the elements were most useful for, some objects you could use as foci. I’d done pretty well with my spell and had basically guessed all the main points.

There were some symbols I could have added for more strength, but you needed regents to power those, which I had none of. The most useful part of the book was the list of magical ingredients and their properties for potion making and spellcraft. When I got back to the forest I’d have some hunting to do. There were even some mushrooms listed I might be able to find down here.

I was absorbed in my book when I finally heard Hanna stir. I turned to her as I slipped the book back into my bag.

“Mornin’ sunshine.” I said with false cheer. I was still pissed. Putting an angry wizardess into a leg-lock was not the best plan to diffuse the situation, but that was a long way from justifying deadly force.

Hanna looked up at me confused, then grabbed her head as if in pain. “What happened?” She asked groggily. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes obviously puzzled.. I just stared at her.

“Well someone, not to mention any names, decided that she would repay a certain person's assistance in saving her life by waking him up with a kick to his broken ribs. Then proceeding to almost kill herself and said person by blasting him with a five rune lightning bolt.” I spat out my voice icy.

She grimaced. “I’m sorry alright, I woke up and saw you asleep next to that circle. I didn’t know what you’d done, but I know enough magic to recognize witchcraft when I see it.”

“No, it’s not alight. You almost killed both of us over a stupid spell. I don’t care If I was drinking the blood of virgins,or sacrificing babies to fucking Cthulhu. I saved your life.” I shot back, my anger still seething.

She frowned, but her response was unheated. “What Cthulhu?” She looked baffled. “I said was sorry, you can can keep yelling if you want, but we’ve already wasted enough time on my account. Let’s go if you still plan on helping me.”

“That at least we agree on.” I said, getting to my feet and slinging my pack back onto my shoulders. We we packed up our meager camp and sat off. I pointed to the right tunnel out of the room and while while we walked Hanna broke the silence.

“So you're a witch?” She asked conversationally. I could tell she was upset but trying to hold it in. So I decided to give her the same courtesy.

“Not exactly. I know very little witchcraft. In fact, the barrier I put up last night around our camp was the first thing I’d ever actually cast. It’s more of a hobby than an occupation.” I replied truthfully.

She frowned at my reply yet looked curious despite herself. “That’s a very nasty branch of magic. I’ve heard of entire villages under curses that lasted for generations. How did you learn?”

“Mostly self taught. I didn’t even know it was witchcraft until yesterday.” I hedged. “ I’m not sure what the fuss is about though. It’s also got some very powerful blessings and a lot of powerful protective charms. It’s like anything else, It’s about what you use it for. If we are keeping tallies of whose magic has done the most evil, I’m pretty sure you’ll take the vote by a landslide.”

She scowled “ I said I was sorry. That was poorly done of me. “ Her words and tone were very apologetic and she seemed honestly sorry.

Ugh….

This was why I hated women. A few minutes of being properly abashed and you’d forgive them for almost murdering you. The world was not a fair place. “Fine, you win. You don’t say anything about my witchcraft, and I won't say anything about your almost killing me. “

“Deal” she said. “By the way. Were you nuzzling my neck while I was asleep?” She asked looking stern.

This time I looked chagrined. That was not where I’d expected the conversation to go, and unless I was mistaken she looked like she was enjoying watching me squirm. She apparently did have a sense of humor albeit a rather sadistic one. “Urrrr…. can we add that to the list of things you can’t talk about?”

She furrowed her brow “No, And I thought I felt something tickling my neck.”

“In my defense I had just woken up from having my brain scrambled, and we were tangled together, and well…..” I trailed off grimacing.

She shook her head but her eyes seemed to gleam with a hint of playfulness. It was a side of her I hadn’t ever seen before. “Nope. you already banned topic. You can’t just bring it back up to make a point. Invalid excuse.” Her tone was serious but her eyes sparkled. I’m not sure I’d EVER seen her in a good mood. It was odd but not unpleasant. Apparently causing me serious bodily harm put her in a good mood. That seemed a bad omen for the future but I’d never really bantered with a woman before. It was a new and interesting experience.

We continued our verbal sparring as we squeezed through narrow tunnels, interrupted only during the desperate fights in the main rooms. I hit level 8 on the second room, and we made it through about four fights before we had to stop and rest again. Having a ranged class along made things a good deal simpler. I just had to concentrate on fighting defensively, while Hanna provided most of the damage.

I sat up camp and fired up another barrier while Hanna mediated. Then I sat off looking for some mushrooms. It took a while but I found a pile of dire-rat dung with some mushrooms growing out of it. I picked them happily, taking special care not to get any of the nastiness on my hands.

Blip

User has unlocked Herbalism

I walked back to our camp and started flipping through my book trying to identify the mushrooms I’d picked. That’s when I saw something glitter in the rocks next to me. I used another torch and took a better look before smiling broadly.

“Double Jackpot!” I cried happily. Digging in my pack and pulling out my pickaxe.

“What are you so excited about?” Hanna asked opening her eyes and standing up.

“Copper!” I said grinning like an idiot.”Sweet, sweet copper.” I ignored Hanna and started to mine happily. This was going to be great. It was literally perfect. I could train my Str stats and my endurance in the camp where my stamina would constantly regenerate. All the while mining tons of ore which I could sell in town for more money. Game exploited!

The process of mining was a fairly simple one. I just bashed on the wall with the pick. My str score let me knock chunks out of the wall pretty effectively. Although, I could tell I had a lot of skilling up to do. I managed to get copper ore on about 1 of 10 hits. Which was interesting since I could see the ore vein. Most of the ore turned into stone to moment It broke loose. It made the process exceedingly inefficient.

We fell into a pattern. We’d blast our way through rooms until Hannah's magic ran out. Then set-up our very make-shift camp. I’d cast my barrier over us to boost our camp rating while Hanna would regenerate her mana and I would hunt up mushrooms or mine. I’m not sure How long we past like that but soon our rations as well as our patience were growing thin.

“How many verses does that ridiculous song have!?” Hanna suddenly shouted causing my swing to miss and my song to falter. I’d been mining for an hour or so while singing I’ve been Workin’ on the Railroad. “You can’t possible have any room left in your bag, and what the hell is a railroad?”

She was right, I’d ran out of room in my bag some time yesterday. I’d found out I could only carry 50 pounds in it. I’d started carrying my pick with me all the time just to fit in more copper.

“That would take a very long time to explain.” I replied sorting through all the copper ore I’d managed to mine. All the ore had a quality value. So instead of just leaving all my extra ore. I’d sort through it all picking the best pieces to swap for poorer pieces in my bag. It was boring and horribly tedious, but money was money and our constant rests left me with tons of time to kill.

“Well, if you haven’t noticed we don’t have much else to do. I wasn’t expecting this place to be so huge.” She replied laying down and staring at the boring stone ceiling. All of the rooms were pretty much the same, the shapes, sizes, and contents were different, but it was all just gray stone.

“Me either, We’re running low on supplies, If we hadn’t found that pool of water We’d have already been forced to leave. We must have been down here down here for days by now. Another day and we’ll be out of food.” I said grimly. “I guess I could try cooking up some dire rat.”

“Don’t even joke about that.” She shuddered visibly. “When are you going to tell me where you’re from? The East? The Wildlands? Where?” She sat up catching my eyes.

That was a question I’d been expecting her to ask eventually. There wasn’t any real reason not to tell her something, but I still wasn’t sure how much truth was too much truth. I sighed. “Neither, another land altogether.” How to phrase this in a way should we understand. “Another plane.” That was as good an explanation as any.

Her eyes widened. “You're an outsider?”

That was an odd way to put it but she was a wizard. “Yes and no. I was transported here against my will and ended up in a cave a few miles outside Valor’s Crossing. With no-way of getting back.” I explained.

“And you wish you return?” She asked her voice sounding a touch regretful. Figures, first girl I have a shot within a year and she’s an NPC. And an unreasonably angry one to boot.

“This isn’t my home. I do love it here and would be more than happy to spend time here, it’s more about the fact that I can’t return.” It was true. If I could buy this game and actually play it’d be awesome. This game was every MMO players wet dream but I wasn’t playing. I was trapped. This wasn’t my world.

She looked crestfallen and gave me a sad smile. “Let’s go then. You’re right, we don’t have much more time before we’ll have to head back. If we can even find the right tunnels anymore.”

With that we headed deeper into the dungeon. It was after the next cycle of fighting and resting that the situation changed. Hanna had finally managed to level up which I found highly odd. She never acknowledged it but the same blue light that occurred when I leveled surrounded her and her mana came instantly back to full. She also informed me she thought she’d learned a new rune and she might be able to try a seven rune spell now in a pinch. When I’d pressed her on how she’d learned it she told me she honestly didn’t know but was confident in her abilities.

We’d come out of the narrow passageway and entered a massive chamber. The ceiling must have been 70 feet high, and ancient looking pillars were scattered around the room. A stone structure stood directly across from us, and in the middle of the room was a rat the size of a bull. My eyes widened and I grabbed Hanna and drug her back into the tunnel.

“How the hell are we supposed to fight that?” I whispered furiously.

“The same way we fought everything else In here. You distract it and I’ll cast spells.” She said reasonably.

“Are you out of your mind? There’s no way we could fight that.” I responded frantically.

We’d managed to survive down here mostly by taking our time and resting often. A full group at appropriate level, could have likely cleared the dungeon in twelve hours or so. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been down here, but it had to have been over 40 hours. That wouldn't help us against a creature who was built to be a tough challenge for 5 or 6 level 15’s. It would simply have too much hp and do too much damage.

Blip

Baffled I opened my log. I could not imagine what I’d done to warrant a skill up.

User has Unlocked Secret Skill Dungeoneering!

Eh….?

Dungeoneering

This skill is unlocked when a character spends 50 consecutive hours living in an underground environment. Skill improves the effects of various survival skills including, Mining, Camping, and Earth Magic. Also improves a player's ability to see in the dark. Bonuses are only valid when in underground areas.

This skill will gain mastery as a player survives underground.

I snorted. We had been down here for days. Interesting skill, but not as useful Outdoorsman just because of how little underground terrain there was compared to forested terrain. Of course that was just an assumption. Maybe this game had tons of underground locations, there might be entire kingdoms down here.

“Errr… Sorry what were you saying.” I asked Hanna, seeing her expression.

“Why do you zone out like that all the time? I’ve seen you do it before.” She asked with a worried look.

“It’s a quirk of people from my world.” I lied smoothly. “Anyway, My point stands there’s no way in Hell the two of us can fight that thing. It’ll tear us limb from limb in about 10 seconds.” I explained. The damn thing had to weigh at least a ton. It was bigger than that bear and had all the crazy bone spikes and plates of the dire-rats.

“Well I didn’t spend all this time in here to get to the end and then go back home without even trying. So you better find a way to kill it in less than 10 seconds.” She crossed her arms across her ample chest and glared at me.

Since when am I in charge?

She’d been happy enough to lead the way all this time. She had a point though. I didn’t really want to go back empty handed either. We needed a plan and it had to be a good one. What did we have to work with? I opened all my menus looking for a trump card.

Name:Noob SlayerLevel: 9Race:HumanClass:SelectAttributesStatusUBStr: 32LBStr: 28HP: 91/91Mana: 21/21End: 26Con: 28Stam: 62/62Panic: 1/10Agi:17Cord: 24Hunger: 64/100Thirst: 85/100Int:23Wis:23WoundsRes: 15Faith: 10SocialGuild: N/ATitles: 0Fame: 105Friend List: 0/0LinksInventorySkillsSpell BookLog

SkillsWeapon Skills

One Hand and Shield:

Daggers

2 hand Weapons:

Spears

Staves

Maces

Hand-to-Hand:

Wrestling

Striking

Novice I

Novice I

Novice V

Novice I

Novice I

Novice IV

Novice IV

Novice III

Novice IVMagic Skills

Witchcraft:

Barriers

Meditation:

Novice IV

Novice III

Novice IIGeneral

Camping:

Outdoorsman:

Fury:

Dungeoneering:

Novice IV

Novice III

Novice IV

Novice ICrafting

Cooking:

Seafood

Fishing:

Freshwater

Spear Fishing

Diplomacy:

Bartering

Mining

Herbalism

Novice III

Novice III

Novice II

Novice III

Novice III

Novice II

Novice II

Novice V

Novice IV

My skills and stats had grown significantly. Our long chain of hard battles and the ludicrous amount of mining I’d done had given me one of the best levels I’d had yet. I was guessing I had the stat points of someone closer to level 14 than my meager 9, but that still wouldn’t allow me to trade blows with something as large as that boss. My skills had gone up quite a bit as well although I’d not managed to break the Novice ranks on any of them. Still progress was progress, though none of that would help me over-much against something so massive.

I noticed my titles page was now clickable. I’d forgotten about it completely. Giving it a mental nudge, I opened the window.

TitlesCurrent Titles: N/A

Available Titles:

Father of the First Circle - Add’s 15% to the Potency of all Blessings and Curses while Active. Lowers your relations with most NPC’s while active.

Wow that was a pretty huge buff. Then again, I was the first player to unlock witchcraft. Problem was I didn’t have any buffs or curses. Something to work with, but not enough to tip the tides. What I needed was a class.

I activated my title. Then opened my class sheet to see what I had to work with.

Basic Classes:Unlocked Classes:FighterBerserkerPriestMerchantSorcererRangerThiefWitchWizard

Well I had managed to unlock a few classes. No where near as many as I wanted, but a few decent ones at least. I wanted to be a bruiser type, but I did like magic. Priest,Thief, and Ranger were out automatically. I already had a wizard in the group, and wizard was too over-played anyway. Although the rune magic they used in the game was an interesting take on the class, it just didn’t spark my interest. Merchant would be fun, but I needed power, so that was out. That left me with sorcerer, witch, fighter, and berserker. Witch would also be fun but I already had a few buffs to it and again I wanted to be a fighter. I crossed witch and sorcerer off my mental list. Fighter and Berserker then. Well, by all rights Berserker should be a more powerful class since you had to unlock it. Alright, I pushed on the menu.

Warning This Choice is Permanent and Cannot be ChangedTwo Hundred Forty-Six Classes Remain Locked. Do you wish to Continue?

My finger hovered over the button. I just couldn’t quite make myself do it. Something held me back. I slammed my hand on the no option, then ran my fingers through my hair frustrated. What the hell was I going to do? We had to kill this stupid boss, but if I was going to be stuck here for years or something I didn’t wanna force myself into a class I didn’t really want just to kill some lowbie dungeon boss.

Alright, what did I know? Fact: We needed to kill this boss. Fact: We could not do it with our current power levels. Fact: Selecting a class was likely to give me a significant boost: Fact: I didn’t like any of my classes. Fact: I needed to unlock more skills to unlock more classes. Fact: I didn’t know what skills were available, so I had nothing to start with. I paused. That last part wasn’t exactly true. They had just added a class to the base list. It seemed unlikely that something as basic as sorcerer hadn’t been available before. So it must have been a locked class. Which means that it was able to be unlocked through one method or another. Most likely thought the acquisition of elemental magic. Elemental magic would certainly be useful. Even a few low-powered spells could help a great deal.

Resolved, I assumed my normal position for attempting magic. Sitting on the ground with legs crossed and eyes closed. I cleared my mind and gently nudged my magical senses. I could feel nothing really. I could faintly sense the remnants of the spell I’d cast in the last room, but it was so far away I could just barely notice it. It was like a voice coming from a great distance.

Elements, I needed elements. I reached in my pack and took out the last torch. We’d already used it a bit but it should still suffice for an hour or so. I lit it using my flint and took my seat again. I held the torch in front of me. Focusing my senses on it. I could feel it’s heat, it’s light. It felt good in this cold-dank space. I flexed my magical power focusing on that flame as hard as I could. My head started to pound.

There!

I could feel the flame now on an entirely different level. The power of it. It’s desire to consume, to run wild, to burn. It was fundamentally different from what I used for witchcraft, more savage, more alive, almost sentient. I held out my right palm and willed that power into my hand. It resisted. It wanted to burn the torch not move over to my hand.

I changed tactics, I willed the fire to burn the air over my hand trying to coax it. It wavered but still wanted the torch more. I pushed out my mana like I was powering a circle, but this time just shoved it out into the world. It was raw potential,mystical fuel, but with no form and no spark. I shaped it into a trail leading from the torch to my palm. I willed to fire to consume it. The fire took the bait, jumping from the torch and burning up the trail of mana until it was in the space above my hand. I kept the mana flowing, feeding the fire and keeping it where I wanted. I slowly opened my eyes. A small ball of fire sat burning happily above my hand.

Blip

I cut off the mana and the fire flickered and burnt out. I smiled opening my log.

User has Unlocked Secret Skill Elemental Magic

User has Learned Sub-Skill Fire Magic

No new class though. I imagined I’d have unlocked sorcerer had I done this yesterday. Oh well, I had more sub-skills to go through. Next I grabbed a water skin and repeated the process. Water felt very different from fire. The problem wasn’t getting it to flow where you wanted. The problem was keeping it there. It just wanted to flow away all the time and I had to burn mana like crazy to keep to from running all over the place. I tried air next, but couldn’t seem to connect to it. There was just too much stone down here. That made sense. This wasn’t really a proper place for communing with air.

Earth was last. It was easy to connect to, but I couldn’t get it to do anything. Earth just wanted to stay still. I tried to coax, prod, and plead with it, but it simply refused. It wanted nothing more than to remain still for the next billion or so years.

Frustrated I poured every ounce of mana I had into the ground below me shouting. “Move damn you!”

The ground started to tremble slightly, slowly gaining intensity until I had to put my hands down or risk falling over. The ground shook for twenty seconds or so, before subsiding.

Blip

Ba-ding

“What the hell are you doing over there?” Hanna asked incredulous. She’d also been meditating and hadn’t said anything when I’d tamed fire and water. An earthquake had apparently been too much for her to keep her silence.

“Experimenting.” I said grinning.

“So you thought it a good idea to start messing with earth magic while we're in an underground cave system. Your lucky you didn’t make the ceiling collapse and bury us alive in here.” She said, her voice sharp.

She had a point. I hadn’t thought of that. We were also luckily I hadn’t knocked over a pillar in the boss's room and woke it up.

Wait, that was it. If we could knock one of those big pillars over on the boss, it had to be worth at least 200 damage or so. It wouldn’t kill the thing, but we might be able to break a bone or two. Combine that with a couple big spells from Hanna, and we might be able to cripple it enough for a decent fight.

“I’m a genius.” I said happily. I grabbed Hanna and pulled her into a hug before pushing her away again. She looked at me stunned before her brow furrowed and her face reddened.

“I think you mean an idiot. You almost killed us both. What the hell was that?” She said angrily.

“I just figured out how we’re going to beat the boss and a hug with a lovely girl was in order. Unfortunately you're the only one around.” I shot back cheerily. Her face went red as a beet and her she pulled her wand from her belt.

“Stop, stop I was kidding!” I said frantically. “We don’t have time for you to blast me unconscious for another eight hours. I promise you're quite beautiful please don’t kill me.” If anything that only made her scowl more. She did however put away her wand.

“So what’s this master plan of yours” She asked a few moments later her voice sounding reluctantly curious. She was far from appeased but at least she wasn’t going to start pitching fire or lighting around.

“Simple really. I sneak into the room, push over one of those giant pillars onto the rat. Then you blast it with the biggest, flashiest, most destructive spell you can manage, and we hope we injure it enough I can finish it off.” I explained. Simple plans were always the best plans. It left less to screw up.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan. Are you sure you can push one of those pillars over. You're strong, but I’m not sure you're that strong and if I cast a seven rune spell, I’ll likely fall unconscious afterwards leaving you to fight it alone. ” Her brow furrowed in thought.

“If the pillar and your best spell don’t weaken it enough for us to fight it, then we don’t have a chance anyway. This was all your idea after all. Besides, I’ve got a few things I want to try first.” I pointed out.

“Fine. Just let me know when you're ready.” She said resigned, then sat down on a rock nearby.

First things first. I checked my log.

User has Learned Sub-Skill Earth Magic

User Has Unlocked Class Geomancer

Geomancer….. eh?

I brought up the details.

Geomancer

A hybrid class mixing magic and melee combat. Geomancers are powerful warriors using earth magics to enhance their physical attributes, harden their skin, and strengthen their blows.

This class is unlocked by unlocking both the Earth Magic sub-skill, and the Dungeoneering Skill

Triple Jackpot!

Now that was a class. A close range fighter who had powerful magic, and a ridiculously hard class to unlock. Besides earth mages always got the shaft in games. Everyone always wanted to be a Fire mage or an Ice mage. Earth needed some love. I selected the class, and quickly hit accept on the warning box before I could change my mind.

You Have Selected Class Geomancer!Attribute Bonuses

+ .5 bonus to UBstr on level-up

+ .5 bonus to LBstr on level-up

+ 1 bonus to Con on level-up

+ 1 bonus to Res on level-up

User HP calculation has changed from 50% of Con per level to %50 of Con and 25% of Wis per Level

User Mana calculation has changed from 50% of Res per level to %50 of Res and 25% of End per Level

Skill Bonuses

Elemental Magic is now a Primary Skill

Earth Magic Specialization Selected

Air Magic is now a Restricted Skill and cannot be Learned

Medium Armor is now a Secondary Skill

AbilitiesStoneskin

Draws upon the Earth to harden the players skin.

Rank: Novice I

Duration: Toggle

Cost: Reserves 10 Mana

Effect: Increases users armor by 30

I stared stupefied. That was a ridiculous amount of bonuses. New HP and Mana Calculations, a new ability. I still had no idea how the skill system worked, but it seemed a rather petty gripe in the midst of such overwhelming awesomeness. The best parts though were the passive stat gains. Those would make a huge difference over time. However, none of those would really help me with his fight. Still, it was a pretty sweet class.

“What happened?” Hanna said looking puzzled. “You look…. Different somehow.”

I smiled. “I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grow up.”

“Oh, and what’s that? A smartass?” She grumbled, turning away from me again.

“No need to exert myself for that. I’ve got it down pat already. I’m going to be a Geomancer.” I shot back while opening more menus. My log said I unlocked the First Geomancer achievement.

“What’s a geomancer.” She asked while I opened pane.

TitlesCurrent Titles: Father of the First Circle

Available Titles:

Father of the First Circle - Add’s 15% to the Potency of all Blessing and Curses while Active. Lowers your relations with most NPC’s while active.

Chosen Of Gaia - Increases the potency of all Active Geomancer Class Abilities by 5%

“A sorta earth mage.” I said equipping the title. It wasn’t as good as the witch title, but It also didn’t have the drawbacks. I supposed it was pretty good considering I could Just have it equipped forever.

“That’s great and all, but are you ready yet. We are in a hurry right?” Hanna asked impatient. We were indeed in a hurry, but I had one last thing I wanted to do.

“Uhhhhh, not really. I’ve got one more thing I want to try.”

****************************************************************

"More witchcraft?” Hanna said snidely as I sat flipping through my new book.

“Not this argument again.” I groaned. “We NEED to kill this rat. Witchcraft will help. Now stop being such a killjoy.” I took at my rock and scratched another circle in the ground. Then dug out my book and flipped to the page on blessings.

‘Casting a blessing is similar to that of a protective spell. The user must create a circle, then select a shape based on the number of elements one wishes. Two is the minimum. Adding more Elements to the spell will increase it’s range of effects as well as it’s potency, but will also increase the difficulty of the casting and the mana consumed.

Secondly A user must select the person or object they wish to bestow the blessing upon. This is usually done by adding a small part of the user into the magic circle, fingernails, hair, and blood, are the most common.

Thirdly a shaping element must be present. This is done by drawing a ritual symbol and empowering it with a compatible ingredient. See Appendix 4c for a list of basic symbols and Chapter 7 for valid reagents.’

“Lets see…” I muttered flipping through the book. “We’ll stick to two elements since this is a first attempt. Earth for protection and strength. Fire for Intensity.” I thought out-loud while I readied everything. I lit a small wooden splinter from our last torch on fire and sat it down with my rock down at the corners of the triangle. Then I fished a small shriveled grey mushroom out of my pack and flipped to the appropriate page in my book.

'Goblins Foot

A small grey mushroom found in caves and underground areas in the Theld Kingdom. It’s distinctive shriveled appearance and unpleasant smell make it an unpopular choice for a reagent, but it’s actually quite potent.

Characteristics: Vigor, Vitality’

I scratched the symbol for Vigor in the circle. Then plucked a hair out of my own head wrapping it around the mushroom. Then I looked over at Hanna who was looking at me while shaking her head emphatically.

“Common, This is for the village remember. Don’t be a chicken.” I prodded gesturing with my hand. She reluctantly pulled out a hair and handed it to me. “That wasn’t so hard. Trust me this’ll be great.”

“I somehow don’t believe you.” She muttered. I blocked out her voice and focused on the spell. Pumping every drop of my magic into the circle. I would have liked to have saved some for stone-skin, but 30 armor wouldn’t be terribly useful against a monster who would likely kill me in a hit or two. The circle blazed with power, and the lines of color that swirled around were brighter than I’d ever seen before.

I supposed I did have more mana now and there was also my title which pumped up my blessings. I swayed woozily, suddenly light headed, but fought off the feeling as I focused on what I wanted. We needed strength and vitality. Enough to push over one of those giant pillars and survive against the Rat Boss. Giving the spell the last of my willpower, I reached out and broke the circle.

You have created a New Spell. Would you like to Name It?

Blip

Power spilled into the room, racing around in the air. Brown and Red weaved themselves into complex patterns until they blended together transforming into into a neon orange. The ball of energy suddenly split into two, and slammed into Hanna and I. Hitting us directly above our hearts.

It felt as if I’d suddenly been hit by lightning and I gasped at the sensations rocketing through me. An odd alien power seemed to fill my body and energy pulsed through all my limbs. I fell on the ground twitching while my body adjusted to the new feelings. Half a minute or so ticked by before I sat up, panting. I felt so… Alive. Powerful, Confidant. I looked over at Hanna and saw her starting to rise as well. God, she was lovely. I just wanted to grab her, pull her against me, and revel in this new feeling with her.

I shook my head and fought down my euphoria and lust. Apparently, this spell was dangerous in more ways than one. It made sense though, a detached corner of my brain reasoned. Pagans had never really been known for self restraint when it came to sex. Most of the goddesses associated with witchcraft were goddesses of fertility. I stood up and offered Hanna a hand. I had to exert some extra will to let her hand go, but I managed to separate us without doing anything too embarrassing.

“Well, that was certainly a rush.” I said wide-eyed. “I could charge good money for that, and I’d have people lined up around the block.”

“Yes” she said in a low husky voice. I looked into her eyes and her honey-brown eyes were now dark and smokey. She looked at me with equal parts excitement, fear, and lust. It was a look I’d seen far too few times in my life, and it took another mental lashing to turn my head from her.

“Ok, Stop looking at me like that, or we going to end up wasting another hour.” I said sharply.That wasn’t entirely true. In this state it would likely be closer to five minutes but a man had his pride. I did want her even before the spell, but taking advantage of her hopped up on a lust spell would be pretty damn low. It would be fun, but we’d both feel terrible afterwards.

I opened more menus to try and distract myself.

I opened the details.

You have created a custom witchcraft spell. This ritual enhances a user's Strength, Constitution, and Endurance. This spell is created by combining the fire and earth elements with a symbol of vigor using a Goblins Foot mushroom as focus. Potency will increase with mana and skill.

Warning: The feelings of euphoria and physical power caused by witchcraft blessings can often cause side effects. As you improve your skill with witchcraft you will be able to suppress these side effects if you choose.

If by side effects they mean wild blind lust than they are 100% correct.

Name: Blessing of Vigor…..I thought before looking at my stat page.

Name Confirmed

Name:Noob SlayerLevel: 9Race:HumanClass:GeomancerAttributesStatusUBStr: 32(+3) 35LBStr: 28(+3) 31HP: 98/98Mana: 22/22End: 26(+3) 29Con: 28(+3) 31Stam: 66/66Panic: 1/10Agi:17Cord: 24Hunger: 64/100Thirst: 85/100Int:23Wis:23Magical EffectsRes: 15Faith: 10Witchcraft: Blessing of Vigor (+3 UBstr, +3 LbStr, +3 Con, +3 End)SocialGuild: N/ATitles: 2Fame: 105Friend List: 0/0LinksInventorySkillsSpell BookLog

Not bad, +3 was around a 10% boost. I still didn’t know if it would be enough but It would have to do. I was literally at the bottom of my bag of tricks, and honestly even if we killed the boss I didn’t know if we’d make it back to the surface before we starved to death. Hopefully once we killed the boss we’d get a portal out or something.

“You ready?” I asked Hanna as I packed everything into my pack and hosted it onto my shoulders. I planned to drop it once I got into the main boss room. It was too heavy to carry around in a fight now.

She looked at me and nodded and we squeezed our way out into the main chamber. The boss was where we’d left him lying asleep in the middle of the room. I looked at the location of the pillars trying to select one as far away from the boss as possible, while still close enough to hit him. I chose the pillar on the back right. It was close to the wall, which would let me use the wall for leverage while still close enough to fall on him.

I leaned close to Hanna and whispered in her ear. “I’m heading for the pillar on the back right, Wait until right before it hits and start your spell.”

With that I laid down my pack, readied my hammer, and started my long slow walk around the edge of the cavern. The boss snorted a few times, as if starting to wake, but stayed still as I got around him and into position. The pillar was ever more massive from up close, and I prayed I’d be able to move it. Damn thing must weigh two or three tons at least, but If I could get high enough I should be able to tip it over.

I braced my back against the wall and started to walk up the pillar. I used the pressure of my legs against the pillar to defy gravity as I wiggled my way up. It was slow going, but after ten minutes I made it up near the top.

Now it was time to see. I pressed with my legs as hard as I could straining against the massive weight. This high up I had significant leverage but the weight was still monstrous. The column started to lean, but soon grew too heavy to move anymore. I slowly let it come back to rest, and took a few deep breaths. I could do this.

I pressed again, tipping the pillar slightly, then let it’s momentum carry it back. Then I used the counter-momentum to speed up it’s movement and tip it further. It leaned farther out before I let it go again. This time it moved faster and when it started forward again, I added everything I had left. It hung suspended on the very edge of falling for one horrible moment, before my persistence won and it went tumbling over ever so slowly down. I pushed off the wall with arm and clung to the pillar as it plummeted toward the Rat King.

The sound of the crash was spectacular and the combined volume of the awakened boss, the crashing pillar, and Hanna’s shouted chant nearly deafened me. I slipped from the pillar as it slammed into the rat and bounced from the recoil.

I fell a good ten feet onto solid stone before crashing down on my back. The air exploded out of my lungs and I gasped and choked as I struggled back to my feet.

“Wa Et Het Tirg Saa Na Saa!”

I got to my feet in time to see the boss pull itself out from under the pillar and start spinning around towards me. It seemed to be dragging it’s back leg so my plan hadn’t been a total bust. I searched for Hanna and saw her standing near the tunnel with 5 red-orange balls of flame spinning in front of her perpendicular to the ground. The air was warped more than I’d ever seen it and I could feel the power pouring off her. The fireballs spun faster and faster until they blurred together into a single ring of fire. Then with a shout Hanna flicked her wand and the ring shot toward the rat now spinning around to destroy me.

The circle of flame slipped over the boss's head like a collar. Then it then started to move backwards from it’s neck, working it’s way slowly along it’s body from front to back. The ring separated as it expanded and I could see the five fireballs squeezing against the beasts body. The spell burrowed into flesh leaving burning trenches in concentric circles. That rat screamed in agony and the sound was so loud I felt my ear-drums burst and the world plunged into silence.

I approached while it was still distracted and slammed my hammer down on one of it’s leg joints. I’m not sure the attack did much damage, but the monster seemed to have completely lost it’s mind. It rolled onto it’s back, nearly crushing me. While thrashing and clawing in every direction. A few spikes of bone got me and I shrugged off the injury, still moving while trying to keep some distance and attacking over and over again with my hammer. I looked for Hanna in my periphery and saw her sprawled on the ground where she had cast her spell.

Looks like it’s on me then

The rat rolled back to it’s feet and seemed to compose itself somewhat. It turned, obviously badly wounded and I smashed my hammer into it’s gaping maw shattering teeth. It tried to bite me but I dodged aside planting my feet and smashing my hammer into the side of it’s head with all my strength. My hammer shattered into black mist and the boss hammered me with a clawed leg. I spun through the air flying like cannon shot.

“STONESKIN!” I cried as my body flailed through the air. I felt a refreshing chill wrap my body as I hit one of the massive pillars back first. There was a single agonizing moment of pain before everything below my waist went horribly, blissfully numb. I slid to the floor unable to move, my heart pounding in my ears.

I could see the boss limping towards me through my darkening vision as well as Hanna behind it still laying where she fell. She stirred feebly, raising to one shaky knee. Her eyes widened and time seemed to slow as she raised her wand in one trembling hand. Her lips moved and a single bolt of fire wobbled through the air drunkenly toward the boss. It impacted into the creature's flank with a sad hiss I could not hear. The boss took two more steps toward me, raised a paw, and collapsed.

The world went black.

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