Hey guys I just wanted to mention that I put a map in the spells and abilities section. Check it out! I’ll be updating it as the story progresses. He might not visit all of the places on it though.

Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice got caught by slavers. He was put into a jail. As water was rising into his cell, he covered himself in an orb of earth. The water filled the orb as he finished making it.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment, like (if you actually like it), and rate if you have the time!

Voice had just finished the earth barrier. He realized the water had completely filled his defense. For the first few seconds he frantically looked around for a way out.

His mana was too low to dismantle the orb. He used the last bit of his mana to drill a hole into his orb. The orb went from a point, and angled towards the ground. He sent a wind funnel into the hole. The water started draining instantly. Voice took a breath as soon as some of the water drained.

As soon as his wind mana stopped, he noticed the water flooding back in. He took a large gulp of air. Water rushed over his head. He waited until his mana had regenerated to the point where he could get a sizable amount of water out. It took about ten seconds. His lungs were starting to get strained, they were calling for air.

He sent the wind through the hole again. He got another breath of air. As soon as he stopped pumping out mana, he noticed the water start rising. How long is this going to last?

This process lasted for an entire eight minutes. Geez, if I didn’t have my magic I’d be dead! Fucking slavers trying to drown me.

Voice was going to feel very satisfied when he murdered the lot of them. After the eight minutes were over Voice released his orb. The air had started to get very stale. As the orb disintegrated, he breathed a long breath.

Elvina saw him. She knew he was making some sort of rock orb, but it had been filled with water. “HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!?” Elvina had never seen someone hold their breath that long, at least not if they weren’t a fisherman. She had no doubt about the fact that he was not a fisherman.

“I told you, I can use magic. I poked a hole in the orb I made. Then I cycled air in and out of it, to create room to breathe.” Voice shrugged. He didn’t really care for explaining himself right now. He needed to get out of these bars.

He tried to contact Heather and EDI for help. There was no reason they couldn’t stash his items and come, but he got an unfortunate notice when he tried.

You are currently in a hostile zone. You cannot send messages until you exit the zone.

He sat down to think. He made several plans. Most of which ended in slitting the slaver leader’s throat. Before he knew it, he had spent an entire day making plans. He was making sure that he had every eventuality covered. He wanted plans that were flexible enough to incorporate any new information he obtained about the damn slavers. He had dozens of contingency plans. He planned for several probable responses from the slavers. Anytime he imagined himself doing something, he would picture the most likely way the slavers would respond. He only stopped occasionally to send the sewage out of the cells. He sent it to some of the other cells.

He noticed his satiety had gone down by about 10%. So if I just sit here my body uses up about 67% satiety a day? He was glad he had his Magical Iron Stomach, at this point. He could only imagine the pain Elvina was going through.

As he was thinking this, he saw a figure walking towards them. Elvina’s stomach started rumbling uncontrollably. She tried to hold it, but that only seemed to make the sound grow louder. Voice turned his head as the man walking towards them laughed.

“Looks like the great “Leader of the River” is a bit hungry, eh?” Another chuckle. As he came closer, Voice smelled the delicious smell of food. Voice looked at the food with a hungry glare. He used a bit of water magic to make it look like he was salivating. He licked his lips and gulped.

The man was visible now.

Kronah Level 26

Elite Slaver Body GuardHealth:520/520Stamina:360/360

Voice choked back his substantial pride, and his bigger pool of hatred. He continued to look as though that food meant everything to him. The man saw the looks of hunger aimed towards him. “Well, I knew you mage types were weak but…, HAHAHA! You are REALLY weak! Gonna be honest though, I won a bet with a guy that said you’d be dead. Heh, thanks for making me money!” Voice cringed at the words. The entire time Voice’s eyes didn’t leave the platter of food. There was two very distinct ‘dinners’. One was a bowl of something that looked like pig slop, the other actually looked like a meal fit for at least a lesser noble.

It was three juicy slabs of pork, and an entire chicken breast. It had a fantastic aroma. A side of smoked carrots and a bowl of cabbage stew accompanied the meat.

Kronah went over to Elvina first. Kronah opened a small, almost invisible, latch in the cell. The latch was near the bottom, and released a lock on the small door made for pushing food through. He pushed the food through haphazardly.

He went over to Voice, and put his food in as well. Voice almost threw himself at the food. Kronah laughed.

“See this, Elvina? Look at all of this tasty food we’re givin’ him. MMMM.” He chucked. He left as soon as he taunted Elvina. 2nd weakness: Easy to fool.

3rd weakness: Don’t pay attention to surroundings.

After he made sure the man was gone, Voice created a small stream of water. Voice made it flow into Elvina’s cell. It was a little difficult to alter the flow of mana, but he managed it. The most difficult part was trying to keep the speed steady. If he stretched the mana, the river flowed to quickly. If he condensed the mana, the flow was too strong and rocky. He took about ten minutes to create the river to go to Elvina’s cell.

The more he used magic on something other than himself, the easier it got. It seemed as though it also cost him less mana to use. He memorized the exact flow of mana he had used. He was down to less than 100 mana, so he needed a break. After he let his mana regenerate, he tried to open the latch.

He couldn’t reach the latch, so he created a small earthen pole to hit the latch. His first attempt ended up too large. It pushed the latch, but couldn’t push it past the point of being open. He forced the center of the pole to elevate slightly. The latch clicked. 4th weakness: Believe their planning is infallible.

Voice looked at his mana. It had cost him about 10% of his total mana. Elvina spoke to him. “Hey, um.” She licked her lips at his food. She knew they wouldn’t be fed again, and so wanted to tell him to save his food. She didn’t trust herself though. She was afraid he will would break if she began talking while he had food. She was only fed once a week. If she could just get a tast-NO You are better than that!

While she was thinking of this Voice had unlatched her door as well. Voice dismantled both earthen cylinders, and sent the food down his homemade stream. The plate and bowl of food arrived while Elvina was lost in thought.

When her eyes drifted over the food, she was taken from her inner monologue. Her eyes widened. She gave a quick glance at Voice. Why would he send the food he coveted so much, to her? After seeing his smile, she quickly lost all of her remaining willpower. She quickly devoured all of the food.

While she was eating, Voice had figured out how to manipulate the metal bars. Voice sensed the minute traces of mana in the bars. He was going to try to directly affect the mana in the metal; he had figured he could probably use the inherent mana in the bars to alter their physical attributes.

I mean, if I can change the power and speed of my water, I should be able to alter the characteristics of other things.

He grabbed the bars and, focused on sensing the mana. He noticed that if he concentrated, his inspect would pick up more info. He fully concentrated on the bars. Once he sensed the mana in one, he thinned it out. He continued to thin it out, until his hand suddenly pushed forward.

The now brittle iron sliced into his arm, as he suddenly scraped across it. Cursing he sent a wave of healing mana to the wound. After making sure he didn’t have any status effects from the iron, he continued. He broke the bar as high, and far down, as he could. Once he was satisfied, he continued on to the next bar.

Elvina was dumbfounded. This man was disassembling the prison! If he was a slaver, he was probably going to be chewed out by Evan the Slave Master.

Voice finished breaking enough bars to get through. It only took four. Just those four took him half an hour though. After finishing his own, Voice went to Elvina’s cell. She tried to say something to him, but he waved her away. He dismantled the required two bars for Elvina in only five minutes.

When he was done, Voice took his first good look at Elvina. His thoughts were swirling in confusion. This woman looked exactly like his mother. He quickly dismissed any plans he had to let her die. He wouldn’t be able to handle seeing someone that looked like his mother die, again.

Shitty game is always fucking with me.

Voice noticed how truly under-fed she was. Her ribcage was obviously visible through her tattered and torn shirt. Her face was sunken in, and she looked like she hadn’t see the light of day in many weeks. She had the same gem in her own cuffs as Voice did.

Voice unequipped his shirt and trousers. “Here. Put these on.” His rage would have been obvious to anyone that looked. The only reason he managed to fool Elvina, was that he was turned around so she could change. He was only in his underpants at this point.

Voice vented some of his rage into his cuffs. Causing the metal to melt. As the metal melted, Voice made sure to grab the gem. There was no way he would get another gem like this one. Most likely, since they were so rare, it was two of a kind.

Elvina accepted the clothes without protest. She quickly equipped them. She felt somewhat better, once her body was properly covered. Voice made the metal cuffs fall apart, grabbing the gem when it fell to the ground.

Voice forced himself to clam down. An angry mind, is a clouded mind. He had promised himself in the past, that if he were ever angry enough to kill he would keep calm and calculating. It was the best way to ensure victory. If he had been a bit less emotional Paul might have went from a business owner, to the owner of a six-foot hole.

Voice pictured the Elite Slaver Warrior, as if he was Paul. Suddenly a rush of adrenaline pumped through his veins. He couldn’t help the malicious smile that crept across his lips.

He turned around when Elvina told him he could look again, his smile forced into nothingness. Voice nodded at her appearance. Voice disguised himself as a slaver. He elicited no reaction from Elvina.

“What do I look like to you?” Voice asked to be sure. Elvina had seen the shift, so already knew it was still him.

“You look like a perverted thug, why?”

Voice nodded. That confirmed his theory, although she could have left out the perverted part. He knew he could disguise himself, but he didn’t know if he could look like certain people, or a group of people. Now he knew he couldn’t.

“Good, now listen closely.” Voice told her plan A-1. His opinion was that each plan needed to have several paths to success, only when they were all exhausted or destroyed would you go to plan B-1.

The plan was simple to start with. They would need to lure two guards down. After killing both of the guards, they would take the slaver outfits for themselves. Voice would disguise both of them, making it look like they were part of the slavers.

The only question was how. Voice didn’t know the exact location of the cave they were in. He knew they were probably below the city proper, but that was all. Luckily, he had a repository for that kind of information.

He spent the next hour learning all about the city. Its natural strengths, anything that might be able to be used as a weakness, the layout of the entire city, even down to the arrangement of the rooms in each house. He also learned all of her, woefully insignificant, knowledge about the slavers. He also learned the reason Elvina lost the city was that Evan had been guard captain. She had allowed him in, but when she was predisposed one night, he let all of his slaver friends have the run of the city.

After thoroughly grilling Elvina, Voice changed his plans a bit. He had not known about several of the secrets she had told him about. His plans were focused on how to maneuver through the city he had seen while walking to the slaver king.

He reduced his Magical Iron Stomach to 5 m/s (mana per second). Once his mana was full, he set out to accomplish the plan. The duo headed outside of the cave. Voice went first; to make sure the coast was clear. He sent a tendril of wind to Elvina to say it was. The cave had about twenty feet of solid rock until it met water. The above and to the sides of the cave, was a large cliff. The cliff was roughly 30 feet high. Voice noticed a trial that the slavers most likely followed.

Elvina said she heard voices about six times a day, enter the cave. The voices seemed to come at regular intervals. The next one was soon. Voice had Elvina hid around the corner of the cave. It was dusk. The sun was setting directly ahead and to the right, as Voice exited the cave. It looked like the sunrise would be covered up by the cave itself.

If this Evan fellow had any kind of sense, he would make the patrols go from my right to my left. That way they would have the sun to their backs, if they ever got into a sudden fight. Because of this, Voice made Elvina hide on the side that he thought they wouldn’t come from.

Voice kept watch, waiting for the guards to arrive. It didn’t take long. Voice heard the voices approach. They were coming from the side Elvina was hiding behind. SHIT! Voice saw the two people walking towards Elvina’s position, not deviating from their usual path.

Voice thought of a semi-plausible solution. He raised an earth orb hemisphere around her. He had to constantly feed it mana, or else it would fall apart. His mana was quickly diminishing, while the guards were slowly walking towards her. If his idea didn’t work there was no doubt that they would kill her.

He frowned as the slaver took their time to get to Elvina. They seemed to be deliberately walking slowly. Voice’s mana was at the halfway point, and they had 35 out of the 60 feet left! Gotta think of something. He sat down, and closed his eyes. Either was Elvina was going to be seen, at least this way had a higher chance of success.

He started meditating. He didn’t know whether he could meditate while using magic, but if he managed to do it he would be able to keep the wall of earth longer.

He started his meditation. His mana regen quickly doubled. It was at a total of 33.8, after his stomach that was 28.8. The orb took 40 magic per second. Now he would only lost about 11, instead of 30, that is if it worked. He kept his inspect focused on the sound of footsteps. They didn’t seem to be picking up the pace, so in all likelihood it had worked.

He tensed up as he heard the footsteps get only a few feet away.

“…lieve that Evan would have us watching for a trap here. I mean what the hell does he expect to happen?”

As soon as Voice heard the word happen, he knew the slavers could almost see him. He put up another earth barrier to block their view of him. As he heard the foot steps start to take longer to get to him, he smiled. 5th weakness: Don’t notice when things are out of place.

He reduced his barrier to nothing by stopping the flow of mana to it.

Unnamed Slaver One Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth:310/310Stamina:310/310

Unnamed Slaver Two Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth:310/310Stamina:310/310

Fucking newbs. Voice didn’t have any weapons, so he snuck up to the two slow moving slavers. He pictured two earth lances. The two lances started forming. It was quite a bit of work to keep the pictures perfectly in his mind. It only took about two seconds to form both. Two seconds Voice was worried would allow the slavers to turn around. With a surge of mana, he sent one through each slaver.

Unnamed Slaver One Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth:210/310Stamina:310/310

Unnamed Slaver Two Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth:240/310Stamina:310/310

“GAH!” They seemed to scream in unison. Voice cursed, knowing these two had just attracted other guards. Voice didn’t have enough time to create any more earth lances. Two seconds of concentration was a lot to ask when fighting two enemies. They turned around to face him. Twins? The two guards had the exact same face, and body build.

Voice used his last burst of mana to throw fireballs at both slavers. They were underpowered in comparison to the spell, but he only sent a thought of ‘hot fire ball’ at them. It worked though. With more howling, the slavers’ health was dropping.

Unnamed Slaver One Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth: 100/310Stamina:310/310

Unnamed Slaver Two Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth:120/310Stamina:310/310

They had the burn effect, but Voice was out of mana. He was sure reinforcements were only seconds away. His earth barrier had dropped into nothingness. Elvina went to work as soon as she was let out. She used her highest ranking Water Spell. A water dragon came out of the river beside her. It was about twice as large as Elvina in height, and four in waist. It was clear blue, and had the occasional bubble forming in its body. Its tail never left the water.

The dragon saw its targets, and instantly consumed them. The skin, and meat were cleanly shaved off of both bandits. Its clear blue water, turned crimson with blood. The only thing left of the slavers, was bones and equipment. He dived back into the river. Elvina was panting.

“*Pant Pant* Sorry, that takes a *Pant* a lot out of me.” Voice was still wide eyed at this turn of events. He had freed some water badass. Guess she’s not the chosen of Undine for nothing.

Voice made a mental not to ever get on her bad side. He might come back to life after being eaten, but it would hurt like hell while he was being eaten.

At least the over sized water orb left the clothes. Voice chuckled. He picked up the two sets of clothes. He handed one to Elvina. “Here, you will need to put this over the clothes I gave you. Also when you are done I am going to try to disguise you.”

As she put the clothes over her, Voice did the same. His suit of armor was nothing in comparison to his chainmail, but it would have to do. At least this bandit had two daggers, not that Voice could use them well.

Elvina said he could turn around again. She looked completely out of place in the outfit. Voice almost laughed, until he remembered why the clothes were so baggy. Voice made her look more evil, and powerful. It seemed as though his disguise skill had a lot of restrictions. He couldn’t make her look any bulkier than a ‘slim’ build.

Voice looked at one of the slavers. He activated his ring.

Warning!

Target body cannot be fully resurrected by the spell Complete Raise Undead. If Complete Raise Undead spell is used, the target will be resurrected as with Raise Higher Skeleton.

Voice didn’t know what a higher skeleton was, but he thought it’d be a waste not to use the ring in this situation.

He used the ring.

Spell Bonus!

Complete Raise Undead has detected twin signatures in the area. Twin Higher Skeletons summoned. Both twins raised for no additional cost.

Free minions? I think yes! The bones of the two skeletons started stitching themselves together. First the toes were reformed, then the feet, so on and so on. As the skeletons started forming higher parts, the bones started using the already completed sections as ladders. It ended when both skulls finally sat upon their respective necks. Voice didn’t get a choice in setting the permissions.

Twin Higher Skeleton One Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth: 155/155Stamina: N/ALoyal To:Voice0fReason

Twin Higher Skeleton Two Level 21

Slaver GuardHealth: 155/155Stamina: N/ALoyal To:Voice0fReason

Higher Skeletons can completely revive while at least one bone remains intact, even if hp reaches 0. During the day, undead lose 50% of all stats.

Wait if a lesser version is this powerful, HOW POWERFUL IS THAT FUCKING BIRD GUY I SUMMONED!?

Voice started to think he might have gotten a better deal than he first understood. If these guys could regenerate completely from just a bone, then what could Mavlos do with his new body? Voice decided to figure it out later. He could always go to Mirror’s realm whenever he wanted.

He sat down to regen a bit of mana. He knew more slavers would be coming soon, but if he couldn’t fight them, then he would die anyway. He told his skeletons to guard the area. Elvina watched with them. She sat down to watch though; her stamina was excessively low after imprisonment. Her stamina regen wasn’t any better. After only running a few feet she was already winded.

Voice looked at his notifications while he meditated.

Meditative Casting

Current Level: Novice Level 1 00.00%

This skill was created by casting magic while meditating.

This skill allows you to cast magic while meditating more easily. This skill can only be used while meditating.

The higher the level, the more easily you will be able to cast magic while meditating.

You level this skill by casting magic while meditating.

You have learned all of the required skills to upgrade the Group Skill: Magical Mastery. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Magical Mastery? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“Yes.”

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Magical Mastery. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Magical Mastery. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Magical Master.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you meditate enough to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

Magical Mastery

Current Level: Novice Level 16 Exp 10.00%

This upgraded skill allows you to use the benefits from: Mana Affinity, Deceptive Aura, Meditate, and Meditative Casting.

You are slowly becoming the master of all things arcane. With diligent study and practice, you may be able to better master the arcane world.

The higher the level the better you will be able manipulate mana.

To level this skill you must level up Mana Affinity, Deceptive Aura, or Meditate. The maximum rank this skill can be is determined by (intelligence/50).

After letting his mana completely regen, it was time to start. “Alright, let’s do this!” With his new disposable pawns, it would be even easier to conquer this quest.

He altered his plans slightly. With two more ‘people’ add to the equation, the amount and types of operations they could do expanded exponentially.

Since his skeletons would be twice as powerful during the night, he decided to wait for another few hours. Neither of his skeletons had any armor or weapon. He decided to fix that. He took one of his skeletons inside.

He was going to cover the skeleton’s bones with iron. Voice smiled. With this it should be excessively defensive.

Voice started meditating again. He pictured iron coating the bones of the skeleton. He pictured the iron flowing, like water, over the entirety of the bones. Over the course of 60 seconds, Voice spent a total of 2000 mana to coat less than two feet of the skeleton.

He managed to create a new spell, but… it wasn’t what he had hoped.

You have created a new spell: Iron Coat.

Iron Coat

The user selects one target to coat in iron. This iron has no adverse effects to the thing coated other than added weight (unless weak to iron). The size of the iron is ((x + (metal affinity/100)) * Aura) square inches, where x equals initial mana used. The thickness of this coat is y, where y is chosen by the user. Y increases the initial mana used. For every inch covered, x increases by 10. For every inch of thickness y increases by 10. X must be in totals of 10.

The base spell cost for this spell is x*y mana per second.

Less mana is required for initial startup with higher metal affinity.

You have created a new spell. You can record this spell in an empty spell book. Only the person that created this spell, or someone he gave permission to, can create spell books for it. Once the creator of the spell can no longer make spell books, the one that is most proficient can create spell books based on this spell.

After regaining his mana again, he started using the spell. The mana crystals activated when he cast. He put the crystals far enough away, to where he could activate his spell.

This time it worked. He noticed that after coating just one square inch of bone, his mana already showed the signs of constant decrease. He wouldn’t even be able to hold this one square inch for more than a eleven seconds.

Reading over the description again, Voice had an idea. He decreased the thickness of the iron he coated the skeleton with. By decreasing the depth to half an inch, he was able to double the amount of area covered. If he made it less than 1/10 of an inch, the area he could cover rose dramatically.

In order to cover the entire skeleton, and still have mana regen, the metal had to be so thin it became brittle.

Shit. I really thought this would be a good idea. Even though the experiment was a failure, he had learned some valuable information. If he could coat only one square inch of something, he could make the iron super thick. Although the weight would be concentrated on one small area.

He sent Elvina a party invite, before setting out. She accepted right away. He tried disguising his skeletons, but they just ended up looking like different skeletons. Voice decided to let them remain how they were originally. Fighting one’s dead comrade might negatively affect morale after all.

Voice closed his eyes, and searched for the earth mana in the cave. The mana flows were blockier than other types. They were also more robust. Voice traced the mana as far as he could. He watched as the mana connected to the city above. He measured different mana flows, and finally figured out which ones he needed to use.

Voice spent the next several minutes weakening the entrance to the cave. He created tiny fissures that ran along the walls and ceiling. Cracks started forming after only four minutes. As the cracks formed, Voice shepherded them into an arch form. The arch was the boundary of what he wanted to collapse. Voice collapsed six feet of cave from the entrance. It would at least take the slavers a while to deal with all of the debris. Voice found it odd that no other slavers came to help their comrades, but decided it was for the best. The entrance to the cave collapsed with a resounding *CRASH! The city above could feel a large tremor come from below.

For thinking of a way to destroy a part of a necessary structure, without destabilizing the city structure you have gained 15 intelligence.

Voice noted the lack of repair the cave was in. So, if I directly manipulate the mana already in the ground, my earth magic will stay? He tried it out. Instead of creating an earth wall using his own mana, he used his mana to force the earth mana in the ground to sprout. He used the same amount of mana he usually used for creating the earth orb. It took a lot more concentration to make the orb, but the result was awe inspiring. His normal orb had a total earth volume of about 5ft cubed. Not a lot, but it took up a lot of mana.

Voice was concentrating on the mana in the earth. He corralled the mana into the shape he wished. He forced it into the air, in the shape of a wall. After about ten seconds of Voice concentrating, the ground near where he designated the wall to come out, started to shake slightly. Slowly, ever so slowly, a bit of earth elevated itself above the rest.

In only a few seconds after that a wall sprung forth. If it wasn’t night the wall would have blocked out the sun. It stood at 10 feet high, 10 feet thick, and 10 feet wide. Now let’s do a little bit of math. If his normal orb was 5 feet cubed, then it had a volume of 125 cubic feet. His new wall, on the other hand, had a volume of 1000 cubic feet. For the same amount of mana, with a little added concentration, he had multiplied the volume of his earth shield by 8. Not to mention it wouldn’t dissipate when he let go of the mana!

MUWAHAHAHA! Fear me world! As he spent a little bit of time admiring his work, he realized this would be the perfect way to create his city. All he would have to do is will the mana to create the house. He would need to do a lot of studying though. He wasn’t that proficient in civil engineering, but he knew that he would need to make the house stable. If he didn’t then even if it was built with magic, it would just fall in on itself. He didn’t plan on killing his citizens, as long as there wasn’t a reason to.

Voice forced the earth mana back into the ground. That was actually even more difficult to do. He had to push earth out of the way, and reconstruct it as he went.

He decided to try out some darkness spells. He already had an idea of what it felt like, thanks to Necrosis. He concentrated on sending out dark tendrils into the air. He gasped as it succeeded. He honestly thought he would fail. He didn’t know what those tentacle looking things did, but more weapons was always nice. It turned out that while Voice was using the darkness mana, it was visible to the world.

When he was done he looked at his notices.

For learning to control the natural mana in the world, you have leveled up Force Mage. Force Mage is now level ten.

Upgrade possible!

For learning all eight types of magic, and reaching Force Mage level 10, you can become the sub-class of Force Mage: Mana Mage. Would you like to become a Mana Mage? If you decline you will not be able to unlock the sub-class Mana Mage.

FUCK. I wish I could see what it does! Last time I lost the ability to use spells I didn’t make! Voice was excited and skeptical at the same time. Force Mage was already a rare class. If he became a sub-class, then no one would be able to tell what class he really had. That could help him in a lot of ways.

Yes…, he said with only slight reluctance.

Mana Mage level 1

For using the power of your imagination to cause a spell you have unlocked the class Force Mage.

For harnessing the flows of mana that occur in the world you have unlocked the sub-class Mana Mage.

You may use any magic that you can perfectly recreate. You may now use the mana in the world around you to fuel your spells. Using mana from Solun requires concentration. Less concentration is required as you level up in Mana Mage.

You can no longer use magic designed by others except in special circumstances, this includes spells learned from spell books. All fairies you summon, or have summoned, are infused with mana. These Mana Fairies can now tap directly into the mana of their element.

You can use all types of magic.

The higher level your Force Mage class is the more control over force magic you have. At lower levels you will not be able to use force magic to be as precise as later levels. The higher level Mana Mage class you have, the more control over mana in the surrounding area you have. Mana Mage levels stack with Force Mage levels, for purposes of precision.

This class increases in levels as you use learn more about mana, and how to control it. You can recreate any magic that has been put into a magic book, but you must learn to do the magic by feeling and imagination.

Mana Mage is a second tier class, out of four.

Mana Mages have the natural ability to manipulate mana.

While concentrating you can block some, or all, magic that is within a certain distance of you.

While meditating Mana Mages can absorb nearby mana to exponentially speed up mana purification. You must absorb all eight types of mana to fully purify your mana.

Due to becoming a Mana Mage, your Meditation skill has been upgraded to Adept.

The rank of the Group Skill: Magical Mastery is more than 1 rank below Meditate. Meditate has increased the rank of this skill by 1.

Group Skill: Magical Mastery has increased by 9 levels.

Group Skill: Magical Mastery cannot exceed Apprentice rank, until Mana Affinity has become at least Adept rank.

He spent the next hour perfecting his darkness magic. Specifically he was trying to learn how to coat himself in darkness. Since it was cloudy, and a new moon, tonight, it would be easier to hide if he were covered in darkness. Instead of sending out tendrils of darkness, he made the darkness mana swirl around him.

As the night wore on, he noted how darkness mana seemed to seep out of the shadows. Voice had to actually concentrate to see the tendrils of mana. This was most likely the reason he had not really seen it before. No doubt light mana was the same. The darker the shadow, the more concentrated the tendril of mana would be. It was always in a tendril shape. Voice borrowed some mana from these shadows.

He thought the shadows would dissipate, but they did not. Instead, when he would go too far away from the shadows, the mana would return to it. Experimenting with this was quite fun. While Elvina was perpetually stressing about slavers coming, Voice nonchalantly learned about the power of darkness.

Voice learned that he could even draw darkness mana from his own shadow. Although when he did that, he felt as if something was pulling at his insides. It was very disconcerting, so he stopped. He tried casting two forms of magic at the same time, using the mana surrounding him, but the mana threads became tangled. The spell failed by coating him in a darkness liquid.

While Voice was finishing his experiments with darkness magic, the skeletons warned him of another group of two slavers coming his way.

Perfect. I needed a bit of practice before going in for the real thing. Voice hid Elvina in an orb of earth, this time using the mana the earth itself provided for him. The semi-orb solidified around her. Voice instructed his skeletons to stand down for now.

Voice cloaked himself in the darkness that the cliff face provided. It was a substantial amount. He pushed himself as close to the cliff as possible. The two slavers walked right past him. He had to stop himself from giving an evil laugh.

Kretchof Level 23

Slaver GuardHealth:330/330Stamina:310/310

Malkov Level 20

Slaver GuardHealth:300/300Stamina:310/310

Voice released the darkness mana surrounding him. He used his own mana to create two earth spears, each with a diameter of no more than two inches. The two spears each had a one-way barbed tip, simple to produce but devastating when pulled from the victim. Using the mana around him took too long to be useful right now. With a pulse of mana, he sent both spears shooting at the two slavers.

Kretchof Level 23

Slaver GuardHealth:220/330Stamina:310/310

Malkov Level 20

Slaver GuardHealth:50/300Stamina:310/310

It seemed like Voice had hit a vital spot for one of the guards. He ran up to them after creating a large gust of wind. The wind went straight from the slavers, to the ocean. That way the screaming would at least be muffled. He pulled both spears out of the confused, and in pain, slavers.

Kretchof Level 23

Slaver GuardHealth:140/330Stamina:310/310

Malkov died, while Kretchof was wounded heavily. Kretchof turned around to fight the sneaking bastard that did this. Voice had already struck each spear through one of Kretchof’s legs. They each went through one of his calves, then into a foot, finally burying their tips in the ground.

Voice was surprised by how easy it was to do. His strength wasn’t that high. It almost seemed like the earth spears wanted to do his bidding.

Kretchof cried in agony, but it was drowned out by the wind. Voice easily finished the man off, by using one of his daggers to slit his throat. After slitting the man’s throat Voice leveled up. He decided to save his points for now. He released the mana being consumed by the spears.

The timer on his ring was up. That meant he could summon another corpse. He instantly chose to summon this slaver. For every second he waited he would spend another 10 health. He gave life to the corpse. After the magic was done he let Elvina out. She noticed the number of thralls had increased, but chose not to say anything about the use of dark magic. If she was going to take her city back, she would need all the help she could get.

“You know, you should be more suspicious of people. The reason Evan was able to beat you was that you were too trusting.”

Elvina nodded, but at this point there was nothing she could do about it. Without his help, the city would be forever in Evan’s grasp.

Voice shook his head. He set the restrictions in his undead. He decided it was time to move.

Alright! Got some new skills, learned some new stuff about mana, even got a new class! Let’s kill these fuckers!

Voice and Elvina set out with the skeletons in tow. Night had already descended; the sun’s last rays of light all but forgotten. Voice instructed the skeletons to show them the path they normally took to patrol, and to point out any points where other guards would normally see them.

The skeletons did this, but could not talk. They only pointed when they were coming to a path that others would see them at. Given that it was night time, Voice was worried as to whether they would be able to get to the city without making too much sound. Being heard at night was as bad being seen during the day.

Voice had, what seemed to him, the perfect plan. When the skeletons pointed out where other guards were, Voice moved into action.

The first man was after the cliff became walkable. It was a steep path straight up, but most people could handle it. Voice saw the man standing on a fairly large stone, no doubt to be able to see more. This was one of the places Elvina had stationed her guards. If that was the case then each guard could see two others, and be seen by two others.

He never changed the direction he was facing. Voice felt the darkness around himself. He watched where the shadows connected to each other. He had to stay in close proximity to the shadows for his cloak to work.

Voice knew there were many slavers on this river island. It’s so sad. When the slavers got this new source of food (slaves), they began to overpopulate. I hate killing, but I need to thin the numbers. If I don’t then they might go extinct. Voice ‘sadly’ nodded to himself.

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana MageHealth100Mana1150Stamina350Level34Current TitleSurgeonHealth Regen/Sec1.0Mana Regen/Sec16.9 (11.9)Stamina Regen/Sec4.9Strength41Agility34Wisdom169Intelligence115Endurance49Dexterity34Luck0Vitality35Charisma20Compassion75Leadership36Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points5Fame700

Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%

Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%

Dissection Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%

Automatic Dissection Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 17 Exp 50.00%

Group Skill: Inspect Apprentice Level 37 Exp 10.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 15 Exp 6.67%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 25 Exp 4.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Apprentice Level 27 Exp 4.44%

Group Skill: Survival Novice Level 20 Exp 60.00%

Group Skill: Combat Learning Novice Level 17 Exp 24.56%

Affinities WindowLight60Water35Wind25Nature50Metal25Earth25Fire25Darkness100