Chapter 16

Efficient Training.

The first step on the path to becoming a magic user is picking a discipline. Fire, Dark, Ice, that sort of thing. After primarily using magic from that discipline, the matching Affinity skill will be gained that increases the power of spells from that branch. There are mages and shamans that learn spells from more than one discipline, but they are usually weaker than purists because training multiple affinity skills means that each affinity is likely weaker than the affinity of a purist that only trains in one discipline.

It is like a ranger that trains both Sword Mastery and Archery. Their sword skill would be less than a Swordsman, and their bow skill would be less than a Archer’s. In order to overcome these weaknesses, the ranger would have to devote twice the amount of time to training as either purist. However, knowing both bow and sword is not necessarily better than knowing one or the other. If a Ranger gets their Sword Mastery and Archery skills up the match either purist, it doesn’t mean they will deal any more damage. Unless a player fights solo, there is little point in taking the time and effort to master multiple skills. It is better to devote all of their time into mastering one skill.

All that being said, I usually do fight solo which is why I have to spend so much time mastering different skills and strengths.

When I brought all of this up with my new companion Talia, she asked me which discipline I wanted her to take.

Having been bedridden most of her life, Talia was level 19, (the same as her age) and had no class or combat skills. However, after my ‘treatment,’ she gained several useful abilities.

Magic Mastery [1] 0%

The ability to cast and use powerful magic.

Magic spells are 2% stronger

Mana cost for all magic reduced by 5%Flash Cast [Max]

The innate ability to use magic without casting or chanting.Werewolf’s Constitution [Max]

The strong body of a werewolf is immune to disease and resists weather effects.

A werewolf has enhanced senses.

Damage from Silver weapons is doubled.

The mortal form of a werewolf gains strength from eating meat.

+20% Strength +10% Agility for 3 hours after eating meat.Lunar Strength [Max]

All stats increased by 30% while fighting under moonlight.Cursed Werewolf Transformation [Max]

Can switch between Cursed Werewolf form and mortal form. Switch is Automatic while under the light of a full moon.

Switching to Cursed Werewolf form increases physical stats, change determined by level.

Cursed Werewolves are naturally imbued with magic forces, they cast cast magic known by the User as well as Cursed Werewolf Skills.

Biting a person while a Cursed Werewolf has a chance to inflict Lycanthropy.Cursed Claws [1] 0%

Passive Cursed Werewolf Skill. Claws are wrapped in a cursed aura, attacks with claws deal additional dark magic damage. The cursed wounds are slow to heal and resist healing magic.

Attacking claws drains 20 mana per attack.Cursed Howl [1] 0%

Spreads a dark force through sound that curses and intimidates all enemies that hear it.

Mana cost: 25Cursed Feeding [1] 0%

Consuming enemies while transformed regenerates health and stamina.

Consuming enemies that have been cursed also regenerates mana and increases magic attack for a short period. This effects stacks.Cursed Strike [1] 0%

Fires a shot of negative energy from the mouth.

The skill uses up all stacks of increased magic attack gained from Cursed Feeding.

The Magic Attack power is determined by the number of stacks of Cursed Feeding consumed.

With skills like this, she could rampage through an entire force of monsters, cursing and consuming them until there is nothing left but corpses and blood. However, before training her werewolf skills I wanted to strengthen her magic.

Ideally she should use Black magic as Black Magic Affinity would strengthen her curses. But I use demon magic myself which is a branch of black magic so if we both fight an enemy that resists black magic then our magic would be useless.

Besides, the Dark Spell Armlet can be worn by anyone, so I could give it to her if I wanted. Therefore, she has no need to learn Black Magic spells.

Instead, I wanted her to learn Earth magic.

Of all the magic disciplines, Earth is by far the least popular. Most mages prefer flashy elements like fire or lightning for damage dealing. The rest like black magic and ice magic. Earth magic has powerful, wide range effects, but the casting is slow and most agree it is not comparable in battle to the other elements.

That being said, it is also one of the most useful if used properly.

We went to the Mage’s guild where she obtained the Mage Class. She acquired one spell book for starters and I bought her two others.

Earth Spike [1] 0%

Causes a pointed spike of rock to burst forth from beneath target.

Number of Spikes: 1

Mana Cost: 40Earth Shake [1] 0%

Causes an area to shake violently for a moment

Chance to unbalance or knock down those in target area.

Mana Cost: 50Earth Attunement [1] 0%

Increases efficiency at which user draws power from the earth.

Decreases Mana cost for Earth magic spells by 3% for 1 minutes

Mana Cost: 30

Gaining a mage class grants the skill magic mastery which is necessary for learning higher level magics from spell books. However Talia was a unique individual born with enough talent to possess the skill without the class. Technically she did not need to become a mage to learn spells from spell books. However, being a mage increased Mana and Magic attack as she leveled up, so it was for her benefit to chose a mage class. Also when she reached level 200 as an Earth Mage, she can specialize and become very powerful.

After acquiring a class, I intended to put her through my special training Menu. I had to increase her mental stats and physical stats to make her strong both as a mage and as a werewolf. As she leveled up she would put her stats towards Intellect and Wisdom to increase Magic Attack, mana regeneration, and spell accuracy. This meant she would have to gain physical stats through bonuses gained from physical training.

I was not going to make her train her physical skills though, just stats. Training both physical skills and magic spells was like training Sword Mastery and Archery. It is better to pick one and spend all of your time training that. Since she could cast magic as a cursed werewolf anyways it was better to train her magic.

I first took her to a small kobold dungeon that was empty of other occupants. I used Enchant Dungeon to increase the monster spawn rate and monster strength.

As there was no one around, she transformed into her Cursed Werewolf form to begin.

As a cursed werewolf, her form was more slender and a bit shorter than the werewolf that turned her. Though this is the simple difference between males and females. Her fur was light brown with patches of darker brown, the same shade as the high-lights of her hair. However, no one would confuse her for a normal werewolf. Over her werewolf body were black lines like tattoos that pulsed a bit. These were the channels of magic energy that flowed through her werewolf body. When she used magic these lines would glow. Around her claws was a thin black aura that cursed any wound they gave.

Without need for further encouragement she rushed into the dungeon. Thanks to Increase Monster Spawn Rate the dungeon just barely kept up with the speed of her kills. Talia herself was losing mana and health thanks to the side effects of the Enchant Dungeon spells, but she was able to regain both thanks to Cursed Feeding.

Overall, Kobolds are very weak. Their strength lies in teamwork and numbers. That being said, hearing the ferocious howl of a cursed werewolf frightens kobolds into running away when they should fight together. Seeing another kobold being devoured alive drops morale too much to fight. And unfortunately they could not outrun Talia so they were all killed and eaten. She didn’t eat the whole body, just one bite to gain some health, some mana, and a stack of Magic Attack bonus. She always slashed her target first to curse it before eating away.

There were groups that were not scared away by the scene of a comrade’s brutal death. They did not disperse when she howled at them. For these groups, she cast her earth magic first. Either Earth Spike to kill or wound the leader or Earth shake to break the groups balance and ambush them.

Earth magic used tactically has more applications than any other magic branch.

Earth spike can target a person in the center of a group without having to go through the group. Earth shake can provide an opening even against a group of opponents. Of course, these showed their best side when used to support a warrior while fighting. Talia however was her own warrior, she didn’t need support against a foe of this caliber.

My instructions to her for the training had several rules.

-Sprint while moving at all times, recover stamina when needed through Feeding

-Stop and use Earth Spike or Earth Shake at least once per group. Use Earth Attunement every minute

-Do not announce your presence when unnoticed, try to avoid making sound while sprinting.

-Do not waste time eating everything. Consume when needed, and stop when health and stamina are full.

Overall her training could be completed ten times faster than a normal person. She could basically keep this up until she had to go to sleep. Thanks to her Werewolf senses she could easily locate groups within the dungeon so she never wasted time searching and she recovered everything she lost through training while eating kobold flesh. It was the most efficient training to ever exist in Royal Road.

She quickly gained levels and skill proficiency through slaughter. I told her to invest all of her stat points into Intellect.

Wisdom has many bonuses, but most are not needed for her. Accuracy is not needed as most earth magic is Area of Effect magic, mana regeneration is not needed as she has other ways of reclaiming lost mana, and few of the spells I intended for her to learn would benefit from high wisdom.

Having low wisdom would leave her vulnerable to mental attacks, but that was a worthwhile sacrifice considering how much power she would gain through devoting all her gained points to Intellect.

Of course I intended to provide training to increase Wisdom as well, so that was not much of an issue.

In three days, Talia rose from level 19 to level 50. The last day had her go from 45 to 50, but it was mostly for proficiency training. I said this before, but NPCs gain levels and skill proficiency faster than users. I could raise her to level 100 in under a month, and level 200 two months after.

Not here of course.

After achieving level 50 we left the small town for a larger city. Talia had long since gained the skill, Earth Affinity, and now she needed stronger earth magic spells. Most such spells required quests to obtain, but there were still a few that could be purchased with a large amount of money.

There was a limited amount of books for powerful spells, so most would not part with one freely. NPCs that did part with them, only did so after certain conditions were met.

For example, which a mage reaches level 200, the head of a magic guild will allow that mage to purchase one high level spell book from him. Becoming a powerful mage required a ot of luck, and a lot of money.

I had the latter part covered.

Outside of Royal Road, I often checked on Auction sites to see if anyone posted a powerful spell book. Such items usually had massive bidding wars to acquire. If the right person had an interest in it, even I would not be able to win the bid. I acquired a great deal of money, but some people just have more.

However, I was successful in purchasing one such spell book recently. The auction house’s proxy building was in the city we were heading to. I had to go there to pick it up.

In addition to the auctioned spell, I found and purchased three other spell books from the city’s magic shop.

Magnetic Field [1] 0%

Creates a Field around the target that magnetizes all metal within.

Magnetized metals attract one another for 3 minutes

Mana cost: 120Earth Rend [1] 0%

Sends a shockwave through the earth that strikes and knocks back those in the path of the shockwave.

Mana Cost: 70Bury [1] 0%

Command the earth to swallow target undead creature and bring it to rest.

Instant kill against undead targets.

Mana Cost: 150Stone Strike [1] 0%

Causes stones and rocks to fly towards and strike target

Can be used against flying enemies

Mana Cost: 70

Magnetic Field was a rare spell that most would not find useful. People looking down on earth magic meant it was cheaper for me to buy on auction sites. When the spell was at a high enough proficiency, armored opponents would be unable to move their arms away from their bodies. Swords and shields would stick like glue to a knight’s body, preventing them from attacking or defending. At even higher proficiencies, the metal in the earth would pull the target down, preventing them from lifting their metal shoes from the ground. If the earth was soft like sand, it would be drawn up and attach itself to the target, weight down their armor and metal weapons.

The spell also worked in conjunction with spells like Stone Strike. If the stones around the area had a high metal content, they would be attracted to the magnetized target, striking faster and dealing more damage.

Afterwards we spent the night in the city at a hotel where Talia expressed her deepest gratitude towards me for funding her training. (Those spell books were not cheap.) But it was a worthwhile investment after all, and I appreciated the enthusiastic, heartfelt gratitude.

The next day we left for a goblin dungeon. Goblins are level 50, the same level as Talia. Although she was now more than strong enough to fight hobgoblins, (level 80,) it was still better to fight goblins.

The reason is that due to her efficient locating and dealing with enemy mobs, she can kill goblins five times faster than hobgoblins, thus acquire more experience points faster overall.

I once again used Enchant Dungeon to strengthen the goblins and increase their spawn rate while Talia went on a path of slaughter.

If you are wondering how a girl who had never harmed a fly before meeting me was so at ease with savage, blood soaked combat, it was because the Werewolf instincts told her it was natural. She had no qualms with using her powerful jaws to rip off the arm of a goblin and watch blood spray out from the flesh. In fact this scene only made her hungry.

The mental side of becoming a werewolf was that she could rely on instinct to do things she had never done before. This was true both on and off the battlefield. In fact I have discovered several areas outside of combat where it was clear she was letting her wild side direct her in what to do, to my pleasant surprise.

We spent two weeks there, raising her level to 85.

In case you are wondering I was not simply sitting around doing nothing during her training. I spent the time increasing the proficiency of Psychokinesis and Enchant Card. Neither required actual combat to train, so even in a dungeon where Talia killed everything I could strengthen these.

When she could wipe out five hundred goblins and still not gain a level in any skill proficiency or gain any bonus stats it was time to move.

The next dungeon was an Undiscovered one. It had been empty until recently, and locked from the inside. That was before I removed the seal of the continent. This was a Undead tomb occupied by the countless fallen soliders of a long forgotten war.

It was also the reason I bought the Bury spell which only affects Undead.

The reason I chose this dungeon was because it was the exact opposite of the previous training. Effective training cannot be the same throughout, there must be a high degree of variation to ensure the trainee gains flexibility in combat.

This dungeon was filled primarily with skeleton soldiers, Skeleton soldiers had no meat, only bone, so they could not be used to regenerate stamina, mana, and health. They also had limitless stamina and vitality so they did not need to stop or rest.

What was once a luxury in previous dungeons was gone, and Talia would have to carefully manage her resources here. All that being said, I wasn’t going to have her sprint continuously around the dungeon this time. I would accompany her and ensure she was not in danger, as well as direct her to maximize her training.

By the way, there is something I have yet to explain about Enchant Card. The spell can be used on Non-Boss type enemies, but I must remain in contact with the creature during enchantment. This means the enemy must either be too weak to struggle or be held down by a greater strength.

I used Enchant card to gather hundreds of Cursed, weakened monsters that Talia spared for me. When she really needed it, I could release one and Talia could feast on the cursed creature. It was cheaper than a restaurant and healed her for stamina, health, and mana.

In case you were wondering, I cannot simple give her a belt with a deck box like mine because equipment automatically unequips during transformation. So she could not use a deck box belt herself while a werewolf.

This was the place where her training would truly begin. Strategy, technique, judgment, I would drill into her everything I could to make her the strongest companion possible.

Chapter 17

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