Roy tied down the tent flaps before pulling himself free of the soggy mess that had become of his new attire. On the ground the clothes resembled a mess of gray sludge, hems and folds drooping with water. Roy dried himself with a towel and stared at the bundle of clothing, Tig’s not-photograph was still in there. Eyes wide in alarm, Roy knelt by the pile and carefully rummaged through the pile, closing his eyes, Roy tugged out the piece of paper, he looked at it with the corner of his eye, hoping that if he squinted hard enough it would look presentable.

What he saw astounded him, the photograph was still in pristine condition, not a drop of water clung to it and not a crease marred its surface. Roy pulled the photograph up to his face, thinking it a trick of the light, the only illumination he had was that which shone through the fabric of the tent. It was no fluke, his fingers could feel the glossy surface, as dry as desert sand.

The paper must be enchanted, there was no other explanation. Roy focused on his mana and put his finger on the photograph, looking for the push, the feeling of solidity he had encountered when Tig taught him magic. As he had expected there was the paper gave Roy an odd sensation, its foreignness distinct from his own mana. At the same time it was different, the surface wasn’t a barrier, it wasn’t a wall his mana pushed up against. It had ridges, canyons, peaks, and gaps, but it was difficult to tell, all the details were foggy, as if he were touching a circuit board with his finger and all the fine lines melded together to form a single indistinguishable sensation.

Whatever it was, it was out of his league; still he was grateful the paper had escaped unharmed. Unwilling to test the boundaries of the paper’s durability, Roy tucked it into his bag. He wanted to sleep, especially with the latest debacle, but he recalled the array of screens that had popped out while he was learning to create a spark of fire. He wanted to examine them now, but how would he bring them back? As he thought that a barrage of screens entered his vision, it appeared his wish had been granted.

Roy briefly glanced at each improvement he had earned, before bringing up the more detailed explanations. The ones that caught his interest were those that told him to select a perk, these messages were displayed when the skill or ability reached level 5. He would look into that later.

Mana Manipulation - Novice II

It becomes easier to control mana. Effect is based on skill level and INT.

Heat Affinity Novice - Novice V

It becomes easier to give mana a heat alignment and to control mana that is heat aligned. Effect is based on skill level and INT.

Align Mana - Novice II

It becomes easier to align mana. Effect is based on skill level and INT.

Flame - Novice V

The user creates a fire. The greater the amount of mana used, the larger and hotter the fire created is. The fire burns until it consumes all the mana used in the spell and any other fuel it is consuming. The size and temperature of the fire is based on skill level and INT.

Mana cost is based on size of fire, temperature of flames, skill level, and INT.

Evoke - Novice II

It becomes easier to cast spells that involve evocation. Evocation involves use of mana in influencing energy. Effect is based on skill level and INT.

Rapid Conflagration - Novice I

Heat aligned mana is more quickly converted into fire. Effect is based on skill level and INT.

Simple abilities and skills that made it easier for him to cast spell, nothing much to see here. Though Flame was quite descriptive and filled in some of the holes in information he had left after testing, and Envoke pointed to Flame being under the Evocation category of spells. Going by that information, what other types of spells were there? Were there spells for healing allies and cursing enemies? What about teleporting and pulling out a cheeseburger from thin air?

Roy dismissed the explanations, now it was time to look at the perks the system had promised. As he thought several more screens appeared, each with the name of a skill or ability that had reached level 5 at the top, below it was a list, and as Roy scanned the one for Flame a stupid grin spread across his face. He rubbed his hands in anticipation as he carefully scrutinized the selection.

Flame Novice V – Minor Perks

You may select 1 on the following. The selection varies based on the user’s learned skills, abilities, and traits.

Slow Burn Flame consumes less mana while burning, increases duration. Decrease in consumption is based on skill level and INT.

Torch Flame produces more light. Increase is based on skill level and INT.

Cremate (Ability: Defile) Flame quickly sets non-animated corpses on fire and reduces them to ash.

Familiar Flame (Skill: Heat Affinity) Flame is more quickly cast.

Ability: Spark (Skill: Rapid Conflagration) The user creates a spark of fire, the spark burns intensely for a very brief duration. The greater the amount of mana used, the larger and hotter the fire created is. The fire quickly consumes all the mana used in the spell, but will steadily deplete any other fuel it is consuming. The size and temperature of the fire is based on skill level and INT.

Mana cost is based on size of fire, temperature of flames, skill level, and INT.

The first four modified his current ability while the last gave him an entirely new ability, though one resembling the result he frequently achieved when producing a fire. Now that he thought about it, he had yet to actually use the flame spell, he was too focused on... evoking a fire manually. Questioning the wisdom of lighting a flame in a cloth tent, Roy activated Flame. As soon as the thought left his mind a guiding hand seemed to enter his body, or rather his pool of mana.

He could feel its gentle presence, almost like a shadow had been cast over him, blocking out a mid-summer sun. It beckoned form him to follow and he did as it instructed, it was unlike what he had experienced casting his own magic. The hand enveloped a cluster of mana, and Roy shadowed it, enveloping the same cluster. Then the hand aligned a speck of mana and Roy did the same. Before the heat aligned mana could spread, the hand mimicked dragging it out of his body, then it seemed to speak to him on some higher level. Instructing him to pull the light up the speck of heat mana at the cluster’s center.

As soon as he did so the hand vanished like a ghost, in its place was a small flame, barely larger than his finger. It danced above his palm, its spindly form fluttering to the imperceptible movement of the air. Roy watched it burn, he stared and stared, expecting it to vanish as quick as it came, but it stayed for some time, perhaps a full minute or two. Something completely unlike the fast and bright fire he had produced earlier in the night.

This was what it felt like to use a spell as an ability, if he had not learned from Tig would he even have noticed or cared about the small steps it took to reach the conclusion, would he not have just followed along, guided by that benevolent hand. It was not as exhilarating, not as wondrous as casting magic by himself, but it was more complete, more uniform, and much more comforting to be led along by the all-encompassing entity. Almost like a he was being watched over and protected, though he supposed it was a false sense of safety.

He had followed along, but were the steps not all doable by himself? He concentrated on his mana and tried to grasp a handful, just like he had done earlier. It was surprisingly difficult compared to only grabbing the distinct heat aligned mana, though if he looked back to his fight earlier, he had pulled a few packets of unaligned mana along in his haste to dislodge the heat mana.

He needed to be forceful, at least for now. He willed his invisible hand to force itself closed on the mana and it did, slowly but surely and small cluster stood isolated from the rest of the pool. Now he aligned a speck and dragged the whole ball shaped container out of his other body, before lighting it. The flame was just as small and burned just as long, maybe even longer because of the amount he had clutched in his fist.

Skill Up!

Mana Manipulation LV 1 > LV 2 (Novice)

It was good to see that he was improving. Now that he had a grasp of how Flame worked he could decide on which perk to choose. It was also good to know that he could replicate whatever ability the system came up with, he could learn valuable real skills from imitating what the system did to cast the spell. Still, Spark didn’t look like such a good option, for now.

Flame was rather lacking when it came to dealing damage, at least based on what he had seen. The goblins earlier had shot arrows as opposed to setting their hovering flames upon the Hastaos. The skirmish did demonstrate the need for light at night, especially in the mist. That meant a bright fire, useful for seeing in the dark, was the way to go. This narrowed his options down to Slow Burn, Torch and Familiar Flame. Did he want a longer lasting fire, a brighter fire, or to be able to more quickly cast a fire.

He could always use more mana to create a longer fire or larger fire; he wasn’t really concerned about efficiency at the moment. However, based on his fight, speed and the ability to quickly react seemed important. If he was attacked in the dark he would want light as fast as possible. Going down that route, Familiar Flame seemed to be a good choice, he was no fighter but his reasoning seemed solid. Roy focused on Familiar Flame, a small mental prompt entered his mind. It was odd, as if he already knew the question and the selection of answers, are arrayed like in a multiple choice question. Roy confirmed his selection and the list disappeared, replaced by the one underneath.

The Heat Affinity and Mana Sense perk lists were now before him.

Mana Sense V – Minor Perks

You may select 1 of the following. The selection varies based on the user’s learned skills, abilities, and traits. +1 to INT.

Acute Sense Concentrations of mana that dip below the environmental norm are more easily sensed. The greater the difference, the greater the increase.

Obtuse Sense Concentration of mana that rise above the environmental norm are more easily sensed. The greater the difference, the greater the increase.

Heat Sensing (Skill: Heat Affinity) Heat aligned mana is more easily sensed.

Mana Attuned (Skill: Mana Affinity) Ability to sense mana in an environment improves as time spent in the environment increases. Effect resets after leaving the environment.

Heat Affinity V – Minor Perks

You may select 1 of the following. The selection varies based on the user’s learned skills, abilities, and traits. +1 to INT.

Affinity of Being Slight increase to heat resistance.

Affinity of Spirit Heat aligned mana is more potent, cold aligned mana is less potent.

Closely Aligned (Skill: Mana Affinity) Heat aligned mana is more contagious.

If Roy looked at it from a certain perspective, no matter how much he botched up his choices, he would still get two points in INT. With all his skills a point in INT would probably do wonders for how well he could control his mana. The list was overwhelming, how should he know what he needed and what was most effective, things had only been like this for a few days and his experience was lacking...

There were others with more experience, like Tig and Epipollus. He could ask them for help, find out what they did over on the other side. If they had lived with the system for ages, they were bound to know all the specifics, like what was and wasn’t useful. He felt dumb for not realizing earlier and deciding on a perk already.

Engraving that thought deep into his mind, Roy dismissed the two screens, as he was about to do so an warning appeared.

Warning!

You must choose a perk within 24 hours of reaching the requisite level. If a perk is not chosen a perk will be chosen in your stead.

We will try to factor in your circumstance while choosing a perk, though it is heavily recommended that the you choose a perk before the 24 hours are over.

This measure was put into place to prevent excessive increases in skill, ability, and trait followed by a selection of perks all at once in order to maximize number of options available. This was greatly taxing to support and so these measures were implemented, if you would like us to consider an exceptional case please head to the nearest Contact Point.

Roy could only stare at the screen in shock, not only was it the most amount of information about the system he had probably received to date, it was probably the most meta, if that word could be applied to it. The message demonstrated a level of self-awareness he had only spoken of in jest up to this point. The system would decide with his interests in mind? The system would consider exceptional cases? He could ignore the 24 hour limitation for now since he planned to ask tomorrow morning and that wouldn’t come into play.

The revelation, he simply could not ignore. It was as if up to this point he was playing on hard mode and then suddenly, bam, the system told him it was here to help and would give him cheats if he had a good reason. The hand seemed to be a part of the system and it too was needlessly comforting and gentle. Was the system here to send the world into ruin, or was it here for some other reason? Epipollus didn’t seem to think his own world was a hellhole, and he seemed to view the current state of affairs with just as much worry and dismay as Roy did.

If that was the case the system couldn’t be malevolent, or Roy corrected, not obviously so. He still needed more information and already his brain was being crushed with all he had gathered. He would have a good night’s sleep and ask someone more knowledgeable about perks tomorrow, before heading off to meet with the survivors and hopefully convincing them to leave Anamosa.

Roy lay down on the small mat set up for him, it was hot, but not suffocatingly so because of his CON. He could make do without a blanket.

He stared up at the top of the tent, where all the fabric pulled together to form a rough tip, suspended by several poles. This was probably the most packed day he had in his life, it was stressful and he couldn’t quite bare it all. But if he could, if the bad wasn’t too bad, he could see himself living like this. Wandering from place to place, seeing the sights and meeting new people, all of whom had a story to tell, information to share. He could bare it, if he narrowed his sights and looked ahead, went with the flow as it carried him along, into sleep.