No time to lose, Zortex walked to the part of the tower available for rank 2 students. Until now it was blocked all time by a couple of older students, but with his new badge he was let through without any issues. He walked a bit around familiarizing with the new section of the building. This part was actually bigger than the rank 1 part. Most students have no trouble completing the first test, even if it may take longer times for different individuals, but the test for the rank 3 admission was much more difficult and many people found themselves stuck at the rank 2, hence the increased number of people compared to the noob level. Zortex only had a few days left and he understood that he could not really follow the full program of classes. He didn’t even know what he needed to do to rise up on the hierarchy. For a moment he wondered if he should remain in the city and continue his training, but he discarded the idea. Sure more training right now would make him even stronger, but he didn’t start living in AoL to only train. There must be a goal behind all the effort, hence the need to get out and get a feeling of the world. Finished the mission he would have time to visit the city again and follow higher courses. Real fights with his life on the line would get him the experience to understand his next steps into the path to strength.

For now he would just find a strong spell related to his attributes and try to learn it before travelling outside. The journey should give him some free time to grind the spell to be useful in his fights. The wizard tower gave access to some spells, but the more you proceeded the fewer are available to normal students. Getting really cool spells required the help of personal mentors. Student who excelled during their month trial would be chosen by a mentor, or more than one, without any expenses or exams, as they would become a source of pride for their professor if their talent would bring them to obtain great accomplishment in their future. People like Zortex instead would have to beg some low-key teacher and pass some errands for him and probably bribe him to be given some lessons. Zortex had no time for this, so he just had a look at the spell available to anyone. Unluckily for him, his attributes were not very common for such mixture of spells. Most of the magic displayed were variants of the different elements, especially fire and earth. Actually this wizard tower specialized on fire spells, so it was no wonder to find such an assortment. Most of the cities had a wizard tower, and depending on the professors it would specialize on different things. The capital of the country, for example, had more than one wizard tower and each specialized on a different class of spells. Every year there would be a tournament to establish which one was the stronger. It was an important event which was attended by more than a hundred thousand people, especially nobility. In the future Zortex would have to find a place where darkness was the main element. His other available attribute was Slime spells, but he didn’t really know what that meant. For sure there was no place for Slime mages, otherwise he would not have been the first to obtain such a class, as stated by the System at the end of his trial. He could only guess some things which looked slimy.

There were a few curses which he could have tried to learn, but Zortex surmised that he was still lacking in his offensive power. He just needed to find an enemy resistant to acid and he would be in real trouble. His physical combat skills were really lacking. Actually he had not learned any skill, if not the generic Mastery of a weapon. After a careful consideration he opted for the Decay Bolt spell. He looked at the characteristic of the crystal.

Decay Bolt

By using your mana you can shoot a bolt of dark energy which will damage the enemy with its momentum and with 10% possibility to apply the “rot” status to the area of impact.

Rot status: decreases the resistance and defense of items. Living beings will feel sick.

Increasing the skill level will increase the damage and the probability and efficiency of the “rot” status

Zortex was somehow disappointed. The effects were not that different from the ones of the Acidic Shot. Probably acid would damage the items even more than rot, and for sure it would hurt more than just feeling sick. He wondered why this spell was considered higher level than the other one. Anyway it was the only offensive spell with darkness element and by the way it worked it would be efficient even against enemies resilient to acid. Even more, the acid abrasion and the sickness would add up, which is always nice.

People were walking around him and some were eyeing his Shadow Mask, since not everyone here had seen him yet. Zortex scuttled fast to the attendant and asked for the spell crystals.

“I would like 3 crystals of the Decay Bolt”

“It’s 3 silver each”

The price for sure has increased compared to the previous crystals. I can afford it, however it would be better for me to learn it fast, not only because I will leave soon, but also to save some money. In the past I succeeded on my first try for all other spells, but here it should be a lot more difficult from what I have heard. Hmmm….maybe Decay Bolt is considered an higher level spell not because it is stronger, but because it is harder to learn. This is something to take into account if I will have to buy spells in the future. Difficulty doesn’t necessarily follow the strength of a spell.

Zortex paid and went to find a personal space to learn the spell. He missed his spot in the previous section of the tower, but he would have to get used to a new one. Once again he repeated all the procedure to start learning a new spell. He took out a quite big mana crystal and ingested the gross dark green spell crystal. He overcharged himself with mana and shot his first Decay Bolt. The color of the spell was a dark green, just like its crystal. The volume was much smaller than the Acidic Shot and it moved faster, and when it hit the barrier in front of him it gave a small explosion spreading some of its energy. Zortex focused inward trying to feel his mana channels in the aftermath of the spell. He noticed right away that the array was a lot more complicated than the previous spells he had learned, but once again the feeling lingered long enough for him to learn the pattern.

Zortex waited ten minutes to get half of his mana back. He kept his eyes closed for all this time to not be disturbed and forget the pattern of the spell. At this point he raised his right hand and said: “Decay Bolt”. In his body he followed the feeling he had tried remember and he tried to flex the imaginary muscle formed in his mind, but something went wrong. At the beginning everything was going smoothly, but halfway through, his mana started to diverge from his will and by the end he had completely lost control of it. From his right hand only a small wisp of mist of stinky mana came out, as if he had just farted from his palm.

Interesting. So this how it feels when you fail a completely new spell. My arm hurts a bit, but for the rest there are no other side-effects. Anyway I got right the first half I think, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn the second half.

Zortex sat down and started training his Sonar ability. He needed to wait some time for his mana to increase enough to fill a new crystal and then once again to fill his body completely, so it was better to keep himself busy with something consuming Stamina. Contrary to what he believed, it took him two days and plenty of spell crystals to finally learn the spell. Completing the full sequence at once required a lot of hard work, simply because each part of the pattern was quite easy by itself, but when it had to be combined all at the same time it required a lot of practice, just like learning to dance.

Name: Zortex Enark

Class: Shadow Slime Warrior

Level: 8

Stats:

Strength

20

Health

214(214) + 2.1/min

Endurance

16

Stamina

252(252) + 11.5/min

Agility

12

Mana

287(287) + 12/min

Spirit

27

Skill proficiency

Knife mastery

Level 7

Throwing mastery

Level 2

Slimification

Level 12

Slime summoning

-

Sonar

Level 9

Slime eating

Level 9

Mana Control

Level 25

Spear Mastery

Level 8

Sword Mastery

Level 8

Tentacle

Level 6

Acidic Shot

Level 30

Blind

Level 42

Poison

Level 15

Entangle

Level 27

Shadow Mask

Level 33

Decay Bolt

Level 3

· Resistance to darkness: Every darkness attack will have 50% reduced effect on you. Increased vision at night.

· Weakness to fire: Every fire related attack will have 500% more effect on you.

· Weakness to light: Every light related attack will have 100% more effect on you.

· Slime muscles: Small resistance to some physical attacks

· You will not be able to choose any spell or skill unrelated to slimes or darkness.

· Godly senses

Remember that you can always discover new skills. Combining skills you already have or by using them in creative ways new skills can be created.

His Mana Control skill also increased by three levels, sign that moving the mana in such a pattern required a lot of effort. Now, looking at his skills, Zortex considered himself ready to move. There was just one last thing he had to do before leaving: robbing that old hag who treated him like garbage. For once it was time for some sweet revenge. It was just a small thing, but Zortex was craving for someone to suffer at his expenses for once. He wanted just a little taste of what he would feel when he would meet Matthew again.