1.2

“The first spell a mage acolyte learns is lesser combustion through Mana components, in other words, a simple Spark spell. This may seem basic and harmless, but the lives consumed by this spell is immeasurable.” - Magus Ackuaz, rumoured pyrophobe.

I dashed out of the car as it finished parking. A quick scan of my AAD and the front door opened with a whoosh.

It was almost twelve yet I couldn’t have felt more energetic. I rushed towards my room while trying to stay as quiet as possible. My parents were probably already asleep by now, no point in waking them up and getting into a conversation.

Barely remembering to change out of my clothes, I hopped onto my bed. My hand already reaching out to tap ‘Gaia’.

The bed disappeared beneath me.

“Oh, not this aga-”

A title card and only a little amount of screaming later, I was back on the roof.

Eve was waiting for me, “You have decided on your character?”

“Myconid Fungalmancer,” I replied.

The avatar from before appeared before me. “Do you want to modify the appearance in any way?”

I glanced over the avatar, “Make the cap a bit larger, and have it droop downwards a bit.”

She nodded as the figure changed, “Anything else?”

“Can I change the colour of the glow?”

“Not drastically,” she replied.

“Alright, change it to a softer blue, sorta like aquamarine.”

She did, “Anything else?” Eve asked.

I shook my head, “No,”

“Alright then,” she clapped her hands, “begin the Tutorial.”

I found myself in an enclosed room. It looked like an old janitors closet and shared the post-apocalyptic theme I saw in the rest of Gaia, except there were also tons of mushrooms growing everywhere. Glancing around, I could see no light source. Strange, the room was very well lit-

“That would be your dark vision,” I involuntarily jumped back as one of the mushrooms spoke.

“Congrats on getting myconid,” the mushroom continued, “the race has a lot of pretty useful racial abilities.”

It turned towards me, he was another myconid, a bit smaller than me and had a flat brown cap.

“You are?”

“I’m your tutorial bot, Hendrix, I’ll be helping you understand your skills and guiding you around Gaia.”

I nodded and he continued, “First off, open your Character Sheet, you only need to think it,”

‘Character Sheet.’

Classes: Fungalmancer Level 1

Body

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 15

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 12

Mind

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 6

Soul

Will: 10

Aura: 10

Perception: 10

Racials:

Superior Darkvision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Innate Magic

Class Skills:

None.

Spells:

None

Languages:

Common, Undercommon

“Your stats are broadly classified into three categories, Body, Mind and Soul. Depending on your class, there are different areas to specialise in. For a Fungalmancer, the important stats are usually the ones that fall under Body and Mind,” Hendrix continued to explain, “you can tap on each of the stats to get a quick description.”

I quickly went through every one of the stats. Strength, Agility and Dexterity were pretty self-explanatory, they were about how strong, agile and dexterous you are. Perception too, it was just how good you were at sensing other things.

The ones that stood out to me, were the ones that measured my resource bars, Stamina, Constitution, Intelligence and Aura. Which each measured energy, health, mana and aura points respectively. Each had a complementary stat which determined how quickly they regenerated. Wisdom for mana, Will for Aura and Vitality for both health and stamina.

Charisma oddly wasn’t about physical appearance, but instead about how well you interacted with people. A charisma of six was basically a person who was almost blind to social cues.

“What next?” I asked.

The other mushroom perked up, “Next is the fun part, you pick your starting spells.”

I raised an- oh wait, I didn’t have eyebrows now- “My spells?”

He nodded, “Yup, as a Magic Cap you innately gain two tier 0 spell slots, Fungalmancer at level 1 also gives you two spell slots at tier 0 and two at tier 1. You also get an extra skill which I’ll demonstrate to you soon.”

“What’s the difference between tiers?”

“Generally the higher the tier the stronger and more costly the spell. Tier 0 spells cost practically nothing and can be spammed if you want to. They usually amount to nothing but utility spells or fun party tricks,” He snapped his fingers and a ball of soft light appeared. “Like so. Tier 1 spells are a level above that,” he opened the palm of his other hand and a ball of fire appeared, “Beginning from this tier spells will actually have some impact to them. They cost more mana but are much more powerful.”

He closed both hands, causing both spells to disappear, “Of course, with creative usage even tier 0 spells can be absurdly powerful. But that is more dependant on the user.”

I nodded, it made sense. Often a ‘weak’ character can still be effective if used well.

“Where can I pick my spells then?”

Hendrix raised an index finger, “Not so fast, there’s the skill I need to show you first.”

I nodded and he continued, he began by opening a palm upwards. “Grow Sporage.”

A single white mushroom sprouted from his palm. “As a Fungalmancer, Sporage is going to be one of your most used skills. What it does, is create a mushroom that is capable of storing magic. Like so,” he waved his free hand in front of the mushroom, “Light Spores,” and the mushroom began glowing softly. “You can then recast the spell from the mushroom. Light Spores,” he said, and the mushroom let out a small puff of glowing dust, before withering and disappearing. “At level 1 you require a clear line of sight to activate, this can be changed if you pick up class upgrades.”

“Of course, you can put these mushrooms anywhere,” he bent down and tapped the ground, where another white mushroom sprouted up. “They maintain their form by absorbing ambient mana, at level 1 they should stay around for an hour or so.”

I nodded, “And how does this skill change what spells I should take?”

Hendrix nodded in… approval? It was hard to tell with his mushroom face. “You pick things up quickly. Sporage can only store spore-based spells. An important distinction.”

“How is it different?”

“Spore-based spells generally have trouble affecting non-living things. There are some exceptions of course. However don’t expect your healing spores spell to affect something like an Undead.” he tapped the white mushroom, “Of course as a Fungalmancer you should naturally be focusing on fungal based spells since many synergies will emerge as you level.”

I nodded, “Makes sense.”

“Alright then,” he rubbed his hands together. “Onto the fun parts,” he bent down and pulled out a dusty looking book from underneath the mushrooms.

“Look here,” Hendrix said as he opened the book.

Myconid Magics and Fun Fungalmancy!

Glossary:

Tier 0 spells

Balm Spores

Light Spores

Mending Spores

...

Tier 1 spells

Mushroom Meal

Shroom Speed

Detect Poison

…

“That’s a lot...” I replied as I flipped through the glossary.

He nodded, “Yep, hurry up and pick. There’s the physical tutorial after this.”

I grunted out something that sounded like acknowledgement. I was already flipping past the glossary to get to the spell descriptions.