Mature Content Warning: Not much in this one.

Author's Note: So, this ends the first arc. Blackthorne has begun to discover a few things that will set him on the road to ultimate magical badassery. Enjoy!

---

Chapter 5.3: Grassland Armorer

---

A shout split the atmosphere just before Blackthorne slammed his sword downward with great anger. The creature that he fought hissed at him in annoyance, and then lashed out with its poison barbed tail. Luckily for the man, it struck him on his cuirass. Due to its unique, though temporary nature it could not be damaged. Otherwise, it might have been broken completely.

Blackthorne was knocked back by the attack of the overly large scorpion. He could not figure a way around the damnable thing. It was faster than him and its glossy black shell was as strong as plate armor.

He had run across the creature when he had entered the mine. It hit hard and was highly aggressive. Between the rock-crushing claws and the whip fast tail, he did not know what he could do. At least it did not seem to be venomous. Rather, it had whipped him with its tail three times so far and he did not feel like he was poisoned. At this size, the monster probably did not need venom anyway. It could just beat its prey to death with much greater speed than any poison it might have had.

The dark mage jumped to the side in order to avoid another whip strike. He tried to lash out with his sword, but the monster retracted its tail too quickly.

Time after time, he narrowly avoided being crushed by that bowling ball sized barb. He was in a critical state within the first few strikes, and now he just wanted to get out of the mine alive.

Soon he had backed completely out of the underground area. Once outside he took a few deep breaths. The monster could not come outside. Its body was proof against his sword, more or less, but it was too big to get through the narrow mine entrance.

“I wonder if that damned armorer new about that guy?” asked Blackthorne.

He looked at the scorpion through the entrance. It tried to whip its tail at him a few times but Blackthorne was too far away for that to have worked anyway.

He pulled out a few of the sandwiches that he had purchased then ate them quickly. He felt as though he had a cracked rib and he had several large, bloody, gashes on his arms and legs. Even a glancing strike from the thing had taken a few points of vitality from him.

“Mining is out for now, maybe after I gain a few levels.” There was no time limit on the request for ore. Better equipment and a bit of money would be nice, but right now he needed to train his combat skills. His swordsmanship was still only level one, and his heavy armor skill had not budged either. They needed to be trained somehow. He was not certain about how to use the ability to draw vital essence from the world around him, either. But he did know that he would have to learn to do it soon.

He checked his status then blinked. His vitality had not recovered to full. He stared at it for a moment and it even dropped by a point. He ate another sandwich and it increased by four, but a few seconds later it dropped again.

His chest felt like it was on fire, and he bled from several wounds. The bleeding was a slow trickle compared to before, for some reason, but it continued.

When the four points of vitality disappeared he ate another sandwich. He would run through his supply completely at this rate!

“Was I poisoned after all? Is it because I’m bleeding a little?” He did not have a handy status condition menu to tell him anything like that.

Blackthorne gorged on a few apples to get his vitality back to full then sighed. It dropped again not long after. He started back to town. Maybe he could get a little help there.

On the way he checked his status several times. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped. Blackthorne blinked then checked his status menu once more. He kept watching the numbers for a moment then smiled. The vitality drain had stopped.

He looked down at his arms and noted that he was not bleeding anymore, either. He forced himself to eat two of his last few sandwiches then nodded. The sense of pain in his chest had lightened as well.

“Was this what they meant on the forum?” he asked to the empty afternoon air. People could be confusing. Some people had tried to get more information about how vitality and actual bodily health worked, but few people had any real idea.

He had not taken any serious injuries during his fights with the rats and onions, but the giant scorpion had been strong enough to tear him apart. So, this was the first time since coming to this world that he’d had to deal with that sort of thing.

He watched his vitality for a moment while he rested. After several minutes it did drop by a single point. He did not bother to eat in order to restore the loss. Instead he waited to see what would happen. Another few minutes passed and it dropped again. However, the pain in his body had seemingly lessened over the course of those few minutes.

“So, we do heal quickly in this world... It just did not seem so because everyone thinks that vitality is like hit points.” said Blackthorne to himself.

Vitality would be used up to resist damage. If damage did occur, it would be used to repair it quickly. It did not regenerate quickly on its own. Only food, rest, or perhaps potions and magic would be likely to restore it. The more that he thought about it, the more it made sense. “I bet vitality does regenerate on its own... It just takes a long time because it is being used to heal the body and the drain keeps the number from rising on the stat screen.”

The more Blackthorne thought about it, the more it made sense. If he walked for a long time, it would put constant stress on the body. Wouldn’t it use a little vitality just to heal from that? It was the same with other things. He would not be surprised if he would lose vitality due to extreme physical exertion if he were to attempt it. There was probably a small, almost imperceptible, vitality drain just for being awake and active. That would give it the appearance that vitality did not regenerate.

Thoughts along those lines led him to other thoughts. Would he be able to regenerate vitality if he just did not move or do anything for a long period of time?

After a moment a thought came to him. It was the advice that Danny had given him about meditation and exercise. He knew the basics of meditating, maybe that would work? It was like resting, but you remained awake.

It would be worth a try, later. He had no desire to meditate in an area where monsters might pop up.

Blackthorne rubbed his chin then checked his status again. He had lost another point of vitality, but he felt much better than before. His large gashes had been reduced to small cuts and they no longer bled. His chest did not burn. He experimented with twisting and turning his body. It did not hurt. It was quite amazing.

Thoughts of meditation and vitality made him think about the book that he had just received. He was not comfortable acting upon its advice yet, as he wished to study it more. However, there was one thing that he could try that should not be a problem.

He looked around in an effort to see if any monsters were nearby. There was nothing. He was probably too close to town, and it was still day time.

“How did it go again...?” he asked. Blackthorne closed his eyes and tried to recall the most basic information from his new magical study guide.

The words from the book began to infiltrate his awareness. He needed to cleanse his mind of other thoughts and focus only on his breathing. In a way it had guided him toward meditation.

Blackthorne opened his eyes and followed the directions that he could recall. He breathed in slowly, deeply. He held that breath for a short time then slowly released it. He continued to do that for several minutes while he relaxed his gaze.

After he felt that he was ready he looked to a single spot, something to focus on. He chose a wildflower growing next to a small rock. Blackthorne gazed upon that flower while he slowly breathed in and out.

His chosen talent was magic. Everyone had been given a chance to choose an innate, or inborn, talent that would guide the destiny of their new life. What happened next would have been impossible without an inborn talent for magic.

Blackthorne closed his eyes, but kept the image of the flower brightly lit inside his mind’s eye. He could see its petals, its stem. The color of it remained steady, and he even thought that he could smell its perfume in the air, though it had been a bit far away for that to be plausible...

While he focused on the idea of that flower, he also thought of the place it was located. Soon, the image became even more intense. Inside his mind, he saw a swirling darkness that surrounded the flower. That darkness pulled back slightly and a new scene unfolded. He could now see the flower, the rock, the earth around it, and the nearby blades of grass.

The scene was so perfect that he could scarcely believe it. A kaleidoscope of colors began to rise up from the various parts of that scene. Slowly, he opened his eyes and gazed upon the spot he had chosen. The world around him seemed darker, but in that one location everything was vibrantly alive. The plants, rocks, and even the dirt seemed to have been set on fire. It was like gazing upon a burning rainbow.

Blackthorne smiled in a slow, even, manner. The book had claimed that it was easy and that anyone with talent and more than five points of spirit could do it easily. His spirit stat was several times higher than that, so doing this much was simple. All he had needed to do was follow the steps and it had worked.

Of course, this was the simplest step. He could not even tell how much mana he might be able to generate by drawing on that tiny segment of land.

He continued to watch the burning flower for a time then blinked. The dulcet tones of the ass grabbing goddess whispered through his mind. “You have new skills that you may acquire.”

Blackthorne tilted his head to the side. Her tone had been no different than when she spoke of his level increasing. It was like listening to another person’s voicemail message. So, he took that to mean that he was simply being informed of a change, and she was not speaking to him directly.

The thing that excited him, however, was that she had said that he could acquire a new skill. As far as he knew, no one had generated a new skill, yet! Some had thought that it might not be possible.

There were sub-skills that some had found, but they were more like specializations. A swordsman might be able to specialize in one-handed weapons, and gain further bonuses in their attack damage or skill development, for instance. However, very few people had even done that much as far as he knew.

He opened his skill screen then grinned. Next to his talent, magic, he saw an arrow. He tapped that arrow then grinned once again.

He had a new ability available. His joy turned sour a moment later, however. “Damn, it really is an entirely new skill, but it requires five skill points just to make it a tertiary skill!”

The sub-skills he had read about had required three points at most, but they were relegated to the tier that their main skill was categorized under. If he wanted to make the Mana Generation skill to be a primary skill it would require twenty skill points! He definitely wanted it to be a primary skill.

The only thing he knew for certain was that primary skills were much easier to develop than tertiary skills. His crafting skill was higher than anything else, but that had taken days of doing nothing but sitting around and crafting the same thing repeatedly.

The only reason his magic skills were not much higher than they were was the vitality cost. If he could develop the ability to utilize mana, he could become an epic dark mage and really wreck some shit! Well, barring that, he could at least kill that damned scorpion. It might be sword proof, but if he could stand outside the entrance and blast its ass with magic repeatedly, he’d win.

Blackthorne nodded. He had to set his heart and steal his nerves. His goal was to reach level five as quickly as possible. Once he could sense mana as a primary skill, he suspected that he would be able to draw from a wide area. He already had the capacity, and it was probably available to any mage as long as they unlocked the knowledge. Few would know of it currently, and as such he would be able to make his mark!

He turned quickly and unsheathed his sword before running off deeper into the grasslands. “Death to all onions!”