∼ Day 12 ∼

With a beam of sunlight shining through a crack in the hut striking my eyes I wake up. I use a moment to take stock of the happenings of last night.

For most of the night, I had been observing multiple fights and gifting out my blood. Giving out my blood to 46 hobgoblins was no easy task. It had left me drained and exhausted. I could barely just give them all enough to afflict them but most of them only got the bare minimum. As for the fights to see if there was any potential in the tribe, I only got an eye for 1 out of the 46.

It was a tall female hobgoblin who moved and dodged attacks with an uncanny ease. The way she swayed to dodge almost any attack was astonishing. Although her skill was obviously very unpolished and combined with fact that she was still very weak, she had some potential I might be able to tap into. But as I currently had a large group of unaffiliated goblins in the tribe, I decided to immediately bump her up into the fourth leader's position.

Beside that during the night, I had even managed to level blood plague a level.

[Blood Plague has reached LVL: 3]

These skills relating to magic and the ones who are tagged as unique are just stupidly hard to level up compared to my other skills. Other than that nothing else noteworthy happened last night. Or at least for me, as Bob for most of the night had been eyeing one of the hobgoblin females. It didn't take long before he suddenly disappeared at the same time the hobgoblin female who'd also just magically disappeared.

While I had finished the first round of the blood gifting, I needed to get on with my magic practice. For the moment I'm still figuring out the workings of the blood glyphs. So without any further ado, I gave my body a little stretch to shake the sleep out of my tired body.

Reentering the depths of my mind, I began refreshing the picture of the glyphs with my mind's eye. It didn't take long before I started on the arduous process of forming the glyphs above the top of my open palm.

...

‹ Next Night ›

Barely able to calm my racing heart, I pant as my exhausted body was almost on the brink of collapse.

Let me just say this one thing. Blood-magic-is-fucking-dangerous. The number of times I've come close to death over the course of the night with me practicing these stupid fucking glyphs were just like I've returned to the days of being a mosquito in the glades.

You see, blood magic seems to have a tendency to be completely chaotic. That meant anytime I lost focus, it would either, fizzle out, have some unexpected effect, or just straight-up turn into a magical explosion that just conveniently happens to be within arms reach of my face. If my carapace wasn't like an impenetrable fortress, I'd be missing more than a few limbs.

But that aside, I didn't risk my life for nothing. Actually, what I gained today was nothing short of a miracle.

[Mana Control has reached LVL: 3]

[Blood Magic has reached LVL: 3]

[Lesser Enhance Exoskeleton has reached LVL: 2]

[Healing Surge has reached LVL: 3]

Eh, yeah not the most glamorous way to level up my defensive skills. But at least I finally got lesser enhanced exoskeleton leveled up. Anyways, these were only the skill level-ups. What I had gained in knowledge was the real treasure. I had managed to figure out what each glyph's function was and I've also increased my proficiency in my ability to form them.

As I had expected, the first blood glyph I had formed had the function of attracting blood towards it like a magnet. But just like a magnet, it also had the ability to reject blood, pushing it away. So I simply named it the magnet glyph as it can both attract and repel.

The next glyph was a bit weirder. It didn't seem to have any function at first. But I did notice that it dispersed the glyph formed at a much slower pace than the other glyphs, holding itself together much more easily than the others. Testing it out, I found out that the glyph had the ability to stay plastered onto other surfaces without fizzling out immediately. I could even make it dim and go basically invisible to the naked eye. So the fact that it held mana together much more firmly and had the ability to stick to other surfaces without my focus imposed on it, I named it the mark glyph.

The last blood glyph was pretty straight forward. It had the function of solidifying blood just like my blood shaping skill but it wasn't a permanent effect and the cost of both mana and effort was a lot lower. While blood shaping allows for the manipulation and shaping of blood, this glyph allows for cheap and rapid solidification of blood. Obviously I called it the solidification glyph.

I already had somebody move the now decaying hobgoblin chief and replaced him with one of the new goblin corpses from yesterday. But after another full day of experimenting, the corpse had now also become a bloody mess. For most of the day, I had been playing with my magic, which had also caused the hut to become a heaping mess of blood, scorch marks, and other signs of destruction. Bob had even come in tentatively to check on me. He was apparently worried as to what in hell could've caused the hut to look like it did.

But I simply waved him off since I was in deep thought about how to improve my magical capabilities. One thing that had been on my mind for pretty much the whole time I had spend on practicing my magic, which was if I should spend my points on a magical skill. I could've maybe bought a skill that would've increased my practicing ability but I still thought it was too hasty to already buy one when I'm this short on points. Not to mention that points are also going to become harder to get as I move along.

So I decided to wait until I had finished studying all the glyphs before making a choice. Now done with doing exactly that I can with confidence choose one.

-Skill shop!-

Skill shop Search > Magic Skills Name Type Cost Requirement -Mana Carapace- Magic 5 MAG - 10 Through a network of conductors in the carapace, you can consume and relay mana through them to strengthen and harden the carapace. -Mana Shaping- Magic 10 INT - 20 / MAG - 5 Allows you the ability to shape the mana within or outside your body. -Magic Talent- Magic 15 INT - 20 Enhances your ability to control magic. -Spell Formation- Magic 5 INT - 20 Allows you greater ease with casting magic by pre-making spell formations. -Mana Sight- Magic 8 MAG - 12 Allows you to see mana. -Mana Condensation- Magic 10 INT - 15 / MAG - 10 Condenses the mana within your mana source to make it purer and more potent.

Oh? There are two more choices than before...

I clearly remember the last time I queried for "magic" only four skills came up. But now mana carapace and mana sight have appeared. It would appear there are certain hidden prerequisites for some skills to become available in the skill shop. Although they both seem very useful, I currently have no need for them.

So the ones up for discussion are mana shaping, spell formation, and mana condensation. While magic talent is obviously going to make it easier for me to perform magic, I don't think it's a wise choice to forego the other choices and wait for another five points until I can pick it.

I expect mana shaping to be similar to blood shaping, so I don't think that is going to be the one I need. I don't exactly need a mana dagger anytime soon. Mana condensation could be a definite choice, but still, I don't know if just having purer or more potent mana is going to help me in my current situation.

So lastly, and the one I've been eyeing the most, is spell formation. Its description fits pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. I already know that magic functions much more differently than I'd had expected. There aren't any actual spells that you can just cast with the cost of a bit of mana. You actually have to take these magic glyphs and use them in specific ways to get specific outcomes. With spell formation, I can make some like similar to a spell by creating formations of the glyphs.

Without any further ado, I bought the skill. And hey, I only need to wait for another 10 points to get magic talent since this only costs 5 points.

-Spell formation!-

[Spell formation has been added to the skill list!]