Chapter 3 Can't Solo Alone

Enchantment can be divided into two types. Temporary and permanent. Permanent enchantments cast on a character, last until that character dies. All permanent enchantments, and most temporary ones, require a component of some sort to use. Once the enchantment is used, the material is spent.

Most consider the battle power of an enchanter as one of the lowest in the games. Both attack and defense are weak. Enchanters are a magic based class that can learn spells but they do not specialize in magic, so spells cast by them are weak. Most players believe they should buff a party before they enter a dungeon or if they enter with a group, the enchanter should stay in the back and try not to get killed. This is generally correct.

Although I could spend the money to buy a spell book and learn a weak spell, I considered it a waste. After acquiring the class and the ability to enchant, I used the remaining books I had acquired from the class quest to learn three Enchantment spells. For now anyways, this was all I needed.

Red Thorn Enchantment. [1] 0%

Weapon Enchantment: Wraps target weapon in the magic of piercing thorns.

Mana Cost: 25

+7 ATK for 30 minsStatic State Enchantment. [1] 0%

Weapon Enchantment: Charges target weapon with electricity.

Mana cost: 50

+5~10 Additional Lightning magic damage. for 30minsWind and Water Enchantment. [1] 0%

Body Enchantment: Surrounds the body with natural energy to move more freely like wind and water.

Mana Cost: 75

+5% Movement Speed for 30 mins

These are of course normal enchantments that can be learned by any low level enchanter.

Beyond the city gates I found my first opponent. A white rabbit. I could of course see the rabbit’s object data. Seeing this let me know the rabbit's attack pattern down to the tiniest detail. Not that I needed it.

I should probably mention at this point that I am a capable fighter. I traveled to many worlds and learned the strongest fighting styles I could find. There are afterall many ways to make heroes, and I used these systems to train humans of my choice into peerless martial artists. I won’t mention which, but a few of the styles of your world originate from men I taught. You ever hear a story of a talentless fighter who wanders off, then returns years later the master of his own original peerless fighting style. Yes, that was me.

The rabbit jumped at me. According to its object data, if it made contact it would deal between 35 and 65 points of damage. My current health is 109 points.

I took a step forward and twisted my shoulder to the proper position and pierced the rabbit’s neck with a precise thrust of my small knife. The move was something of a counter, as it used the rabbit’s own jump against it to push the knife through the skin.

Critical Hit!

The rabbit’s body slid off the knife and fell to the ground. Next to the rabbit appeared a textured piece of rabbit fur.

Other than using the data to predict and counter strike the rabbit, I manipulated the Object Data: Drop Chance of Rabbit Skin, to cause it to drop.

The test was successful, it was time for a fox. I held my knife and said, “Red Thorn Enchantment.”

A scarlet light glowed from the hilt where I held it and a pattern wrapped around the knife. An image in the shape of a red vine with thorns on it moved over and spiraled along the surface of the knife like a living painting until it reached the tip. The image froze and stayed there. It slightly glowed.

In order to reach the the minimum requirement to learn the most basic skill exclusive to the firelight enchanter, I had to increase my Enchant skill to level 5. The skill increased whenever I used an Enchantment, but very slowly. The fastest way for me to do that was to join a group, but few groups would join with someone weak, so before I increased my Enchant skill, I would increase my level.

The knife I had equipped was a variant I purchased at a User run shop. The knife was at the low end of the limit, but was still a variant so it cost a bit more than a common knife of higher stats. Still it was worth the effort. I changed the knife’s stats to that of a high class variant. Not of the Unique class like I had the Adventurer’s sword, but enough for me to use without the system noticing.

My ability to alter Object data was the main purpose behind the choosing of the enchanter class. I cannot affect temporary buffs because they are stored in Object data in temp files which are surprisingly difficult to change without the Goddess noticing. But once I obtain spells that can give permanent buffs, I can use this to greatly alter object data under the ruse of a highly successful Enchantment. The Firelight Enchanter has the potential to cast the strongest permanent buffs in the game, so it is ideal for this.

I will not bore you with the details, but over a course of two in game weeks, I killed enough rabbits and foxes to rise to level 20. It would have taken far less time if I did not have to logout, but the world keeps track of the length of continuous playtime of all players. So as not to arouse suspicion as to why I did not need to eat or sleep, once every four days, or twentyfour hours of real world time, I would log out for four hours. Not that I waited during that time. I simply left the time space and instantly returned at a point four hours later and returned to the game world.

Status WindowExitAvatarCuriAlignmentNeutralTitleNoneLevel20ClassFirelight EnchanterFameNoneInfamyNoneHealth186Mana650Strength10+20Agility10+20Wisdom62+20Intellect108+20Leadership0+20Luck39+20Vitality10+20Attack19Defense3Magic ResistancesNoneAll stats +20

Wisdom +50

Intelligence +50

Enables you to learn magic to the stage of advanced.

Enables you to learn all Enchantments to the stage of Master.

Enables you to learn secret skills based on your level in Enchantment.

I think I should point out that although there are many enchanters within Royal Road, almost none of them are of the Enchanter Class. When a mage’s Intellect stat reaches 300, they can learn the skill Enchant and go on from there learning most enchantments. They choose this route because they need high stats to successfully make the most of Enchanting, while the Enchanter class itself is notoriously difficult to raise. Although a true enchanter can learn skills that make up for this down the road, most characters cannot reach this point and give up.

The reason Enchanters are hard to raise is simply because they do not learn any combat skills or spells that can compensate for how easily they are killed in battle. Even I am not a great exception to this. If I had to face a pack of wolves, My avatar’s speed would not be fast enough to dodge the combined effort of a coordinated wolf pack attack. Regardless of whether or not I could see the attacks coming.

My ability to overcome the obstacles of this game is not infinite. To put it in perspective, image two chess playing computers, each with the world’s most powerful chess playing software. Now imagine that one of these computers had to start the game without a Queen. Which side would win, ten times out of ten? One hundred times out of one hundred? Being able to see the opponent’s future moves is pointless if your abilities handicap your available options.

Simply put, at this point I had reach the limit of soloing. To continue soloing, I needed to be stronger, so I had to join a party.

I made my way to the western road and traveled until I reached a dungeon. It was a goblin cave with five floors. Each floor had stronger monsters than the previous floor, with hobgoblins on the fourth and fifth, and an Ogre boss monster at the bottom.

The mouth of the cave had dozens of adventurers of all types. I found a large group that was forming, it had about twelve members, lead by two knights. All of which were Users.

I approached the knight I could see had the highest level and said, “Excuse me sir knight, do you have room for one more?”

You have requested to join Follen’s Raid Party.

The knight looked me over, stopping for a moment to appreciate my face before continuing on to my equipment. He said, “I’m sorry miss but this is a guild only raid party, Hermes members only.”

I hadn’t noticed before but when he mentioned it I looked over each User’s Object data and could see he spoke the truth. Each member was apart of the same guild. However this did not dissuade me.

“I see. But I do not want any kills or loot, only practice. I am an Enchanter, and I need a large group to work with to increase my skill proficiency.”

The second knight said, “Enchanter? What is that?”

The question did not surprise me. Most people do not learn of things that do not affect them. Other than bard and cleric, most people are ignorant of the other classes that can provide buffs.

The first knight looked over me once again for a moment before holding out his spear and saying, “Show me what you got.” UsuallyI I could not enchant another without being in their party, but if they gave permission, I could do so. Sometimes enchanters take advantage of this and set up in front of dungeons to enchant players they meet for a profit.

I smiled at him, touched the spear, and cast Red Thorn Enchantment.

A visual effect of a scarlet vine moved out from my finger over the weapon, twisting around it. The image grew thorns and continued to spread until it reached the edges.

“What the, did she paint your spear?” The first knight saw the change in color and was a bit confused. Due to how uncommon enchanters are on the battlefield, most have never seen even their most simple spell.

The knight looked at the spear. He opened his menu to observe the change in Attack power. I spent the whole of the two week slaughter session with my weapon enchanted. Using it so much got my Red Thorn enchantment to level 7, it increased attack by 11 for half an hour, and only cost 17 mana to use. My Enchant skill in case you were wondering, is only level 3.

The knight asked, “How many enchantments can you cast?”

I smiled, touched him, and used Wind and Water body. The spot I touched formed into a intricate glowing tattoo. In his field of vision he would have received a message saying his movement speed had increased by 7% for the next half hour.

I answered, “I can enchant everyone and every weapon here, and keep them enchanted for the entire duration of your hunt.”

“And you don’t want any loot?”

“Nope.”

He nodded, “Alright. you’re in.”

You have joined Follen’s Raid Party.

The other knight protested, “Hey! I don’t care what an Enchanter is or how pretty she is, she isn’t a Hermes member!”

Follen said, "Leave it Steve."

I walked over to Steve and said, “I promise to be your good luck charm.” I got close to him and winked at him. I tapped his shoulder and gave him and Wind and Water Enchantment.

After seeing the buff, he grumbled and relented. Follen then ordered everyone to get themselves and their weapon buffed by me. And that time would be made to do so every half hour.

Using the Wind and Water along with the Red Thorn Enchantment together cost me less than 50 mana points, so I could use it only everybody with mana to spare. I spent some stat points gained from leveling up on Wisdom. That along with the generous bonus of 50 points received for being a firelight enchanter and an additional 20 gave me enough wisdom for my Mana Regeneration to fill up the bar completely after half an hour had passed.

The dungeon brought back many memories. Not of fighting goblins, but of training adventurers by making them face monsters.

Once you know how to make a body out of nothing for yourself, making a body out of nothing for something else is simple. I may have created a few monsters in my early hero training days. I may even intend on making a few more in this game. Enchanting has many possibilities after all.

Two hours after starting, one of the young, low leveled swordsmen came up to the head knight and said something. Afterwards the knight came to me.

“Ok, what gives? Three of my men have reported that after your buff wore off, the maximum attack of their weapons had increased.”

I smiled. I had been playing with the item data of a few of the User’s weapons. I wanted to see an initial reaction to how they would take it. I said, “I and a subclass of Enchanter with special skills. Sometimes the buffs I make have a permanent effect of increase weapon stats. I am sorry but I can do nothing about it.”

Such a skill of course does not exist, but I needed some reputation if I wanted groups to accept me into their parties. A bit of mystery can do wonders for the reputation of a beautiful woman.

The knight stared at me, “Any ill effect?”

“None at all,” I replied.

“Alright then.”

After word got around, people in the group came to me to buff their equipment more often. Even before the buff they already had wore off. I increased one sword by one attack point about once every twenty enchantments. Considering the duration of the raid, everybody would have a stronger weapon by the end.

Due to the men moving faster and attacking stronger, the knight Follen decided it would be safe to go to the second floor. Goblins are level 50, and even with just the experience for being in their raid party, I had leveled four times due to the volume of goblins killed.

Skill level up! Enchant [5]You have learned a new spell: Enchant Dungeon

I smiled.

According to the documents that gave me the class, the the class Firelight Enchanter was conceived by a ancient Enchantress who craved power above all things. She created a series of enhancements that were fundamentally different from normal enchantments. This is because they drew their power from a different source.

As I said before, most enchantments above a certain level require a material of some source. Fairy hair, magic gems, precious metals, monster parts, these are the components necessary to cast permanent high level enchantments.

The creator of firelight enchantments devised a way around the need of components. The enchantments drew their power from else. Think of a piece of wood. It doesn’t have much energy. But if you set it on fire, the wood burns itself, releasing a vast amount of energy. Afterwards, the wood is ash. So is the way of the Firelight Enchantment series, they burn through the source material, but produce amazing power from doing so.

I stopped the group. “Excuse me, I have a request to make.”

The second in command said, “What is it girl?”

I answered, “I would like to use a different enchantment, but it will use up all my mana. Would it be alright if the men went without my other buffs for half an hour?”

Follen came forth and asked, “What enchantment?”

I smiled. “I want to enchant the dungeon to make the monsters drop more loot.”

“What?!” This shout came simultaneously from at least three people.

“You can do that?”

“I just acquired the skill.”

“Alright, give it a go.”

I walked to the dungeon wall. “Dungeon Enchant.”

Dungeon EnchantChange Item Drop rate ↑↓

Change Monster Spawn rate ↑↓

When the skill increased, more options would be available.

I tapped the ↑ icon next to Change Item Drop Rate and the placed my hand on the dungeon wall.

From the spot I touched, a light red pattern developed and spread over the wall. It encompassed the wall, the floor, the ceiling, and the wall behind us. Afterwards it kept spreading out and out. After a few seconds I lifted my hand. The spell cost 1000 mana. I only just had enough because I put every stat point I had gained from leveling up in my Intellect stat.

From the group came a mixtures of ‘oohhs,’ and ‘ahhs.’

The pattern on the wall glowed faintly red and pulsed and flickered. The color and intensity looked just like the light of a dim fire, thus the name, Firelight Enchanter.

“Did you change the whole dungeon?”

“Of course not. I might be able to when my proficiency maxes out, but for now I only covered about a fifth of this floor. Monsters within will drop more loot.”

I had no intention of telling any of them the dark side of this spell. For a normal enchanter to make a spell that could cover even part of a dungeon would require tens of thousands of mana points. The reason this spell did not, is because it got most of its power elsewhere. The dungeon itself, and all occupants. Of course this was a weak spell as it was only at level one. The current effect was nothing more than everyone within the affected area having a reduced health and mana regeneration by about 10%. Not something most would even notice. But when the spell reached a higher proficiency, it would stop health and mana regeneration altogether. At the highest level, the dungeon would cause people to lose health and mana as long as they were in it.

Of course most of these faults could be worked around. I could intentionally not cover most of the dungeon, so they could leave the affected area to regenerate mana and health if need be.

However, when I reached the highest mastery of this skill, I could not only affect the deepest nature of the dungeon, molding it as I please, I could also make the effect permanent. Such a hazardous spell has many applications. When it gets to the point where I can cover most of a floor and cause slow health decline, I can simply wait for all the monsters to get so weak that I can walk up and kill them, even with my low attack.

All that aside, the effect of the spell at the moment was too low to notice. It increased Item drop rate by about 2%. I wanted to make an impact on this group, so I affected the goblin’s random number generator for drop chance to give the monsters in the room about a 20% drop chance. (Goblin drop rate naturally about 5%, so I had it at four times the original value.) About one out of five kills got an item drop, as opposed to one in twenty beforehand.

“Woah! So much Loot!”

This was the common cry. I also noticed that most of the Users had herbs with them for healing so they did not rely much on their natural recovery.

The group requested I continue to use Enchant Dungeon for the remaining ten hours of the raid. Of course as it cost a great deal of mana, I had to wait longer to restore my mana points so the time between would be longer than thirty minutes. However the leader gave me blue herbs to eat that recovered my mana enough to cast it. Even the second in command did not say anything about using guild resources on an outsider.

Status WindowExitAvatarCuriAlignmentNeutralTitleNoneLevel31ClassFirelight EnchanterFameNoneInfamyNoneHealth201Mana1210Strength10+20Agility10+20Wisdom72+20Intellect148+20Leadership0+20Luck39+20Vitality10+20Attack20Defense3Magic ResistancesNoneAll stats +20

Wisdom +50

Intelligence +50

Enables you to learn magic to the stage of advanced.

Enables you to learn all Enchantments to the stage of Master.

Enables you to learn secret skills based on your level in Enchantment.

“Are you sure you won’t consider joining the Hermes guild?”

“Thankyou for the offer, but I do not wish to be tied to down one place.” Not by you anyways.

“Come on. The Hermes guild is becoming the strongest in Haven Kingdom. We could use someone with your skills.”

“I’m sure the strongest guild in the kingdom will do fine without me.”

Ironically it was Steve, the second in command knight who was trying to recruit me. I grew on him over the day and he knew that any raid without me would seem wasteful by comparison. In addition to wanting my skills, I was sure he had a crush on me. He would likely arrange it so that I was on every raid party he was on. Not that I mind the advances, but he was not my type. That is to say, he had little hero potential.

Follen said, “That is unfortunate, but I will tell the other captains to be on the lookout for a Scarlet Enchantress. You should be able to join any raid party of the Hermes guild without a problem, with your fair share of the loot.”

Due to the fact that they had more than three times the loot they had ever gained from such a raid party before, they practically begged me to take my share. I insisted that I was sincere about not wanting it and it was unladylike to go back on my word. Since I made the issue about my honor as a woman, they let it go and promised next time I would definitely get my fair share.

I smiled at the group as they left the dungeon. I looked around for another raid party forming at the mouth of the cave. I had a reputation to spread afterall. The Scarlet Enchantress as it were would be welcomed into any party.

Chapter 4

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