“You don’t like visitors?” Jack asked.

“It’s just unusual. Most visitors are children of nobles. They come to the library from time to time to check something. Besides, the library is used only by the tower people. “

The middle aged man was leading Jack through the tower toward the library. Jack had learned how to read in the past month. He was confident about his skill. Writing language used by humans was phonetic, and Jack was able to quickly master reading. He wasn’t quite so confident in writing, as there were some exceptions and funny rules.

After Jack had requested use of the library, one of the assistant went to fetch this 3rd tier mage. He was allowed to go in, as long as he could prove he can read.

The middle aged man led Jack to a small room. There was a wall of books – around a few hundred. There were also a few chairs and a table in the room. Jack had never seen a book before, he only heard about them.

“Read the title aloud.”

A book cover was presented before Jack. He was nervous that he would make a mistake.

“Fire magic: Basic spells”

“Correct. You can read books in the library from now on. Just don’t damage anything or you will be banned.”

“Thank you.”

The middle aged man nodded and left. There were no mishaps.

Jack priority was to learn spell vectors. He started reading book titles one by one. There were mostly books containing various spells. Curiously, most of runes were broken, so they wouldn’t work. There were books more general on magic, books about fighting, books about monsters and books about politics. Finally, Jack found what he looked for.

‘Let’s see…’

Jack spend an hour reading that book. He even got a notification, just from reading.

Ding… You have now skill – Spell Slinging lv.1

While he hadn’t learned anything practical yet, he could already understood theory. Obviously, he still didn’t understand the meaning of various shapes and connections, but he could understand what vectors were about.

‘It’s practically casting a second spell to direct an effect of the first one, or rather, casting a spell to direct mana. For example, spell vectors Rick was using for the reinforce material spell makes the spell work only in space inside someone’s clenched fist. I should be able, with a few little modifications, to adapt that for the minor recovery spell. That should resolve temporary my problems with the spell. ’

Spell vectors were much smaller and easier spells. However, while normal spells were stationary, a mage needs to adjust direction or placement of spell vectors around a main spell as battle progress. Spell vectors Rick used were stationary in their nature, because their root point was the right hand of the user. No matter where Rick moved his hand – the spell effect moved with his hand.

‘I will need to test standard way of spell slinging – using a central spell as a root point. Since I cast spells in my mind, should the root point be my head? I should experiment with the minor recovery spell, unless I find something here…’

Jack ambitions were greater than the minor recovery spell. He had learned all six minor stat boosting spells already. With a proper spell slinging, he should be able to learn offensive magic.

‘I should get the Words of power skill.’

Jack wanted to learn proper magical knowledge.

‘It’s still nearly five months until the end of training. I have time to learn strong spell. Understanding magic should be my priority now, since I have already half resolved my problem with the minor recovery spell.’

Jack spend an additional hour experimenting with the spell slinging skill. He managed to change original spell vectors he got from Rick. Jack made a cut on his arm and used the minor recovery spell. The wound slowly closed and the spell wasn’t cast on his whole body.

“Success!’

Ding… Your Spell Slinging skill has reached lv. 5

Ding… You have unlocked Battle mage I profession.

He checked that over.

Battle Mage I

Requirements

Spell Slinging skill lv.5

Parallel Thinking skill lv.5

Boost

+10% to intelligence

+1% per level to intelligence

‘Nice! I need to level up both skills.’

Jack checked his status window.

Name:

Jack

Age:

14

Class:

Survivor

Level:8 72% to next lv

Stats:

Base

Essence reinforced

Strength

7.84

14.42 (20% + (6+2)%/level)

Endurance

8.16

13.54 (10% + (6+1)%/level)

Intelligence

13.19

21.89 (10% + (6+1)%/level)

Mental Endurance

13.59

22.55 (10% + (6+1)%/level)

Agility

13.48

30.74 (40% + (7+4)%/level)

Perception

10.15

15.68 (10% + (6+1)%/level)

Affinities

Life

2.23%

Class skills

Economy of movement

Scavenging

29

1

+10% to agility

Professions::

5/5

Conman I

Masochist I

Spearman VI

Swordsman I

Battle mage I

Skills:

Analyze

Farming

Cooking

Sword Handling

Spear Handling

Rune Shaping

Charisma

Crafting

Archery

Pain Tolerance

Parallel Thinking

Mental Intrusion Resistance

Footwork

Battle Precognition

Spell Slinging

8

19

9

8

32

28

26

3

15

16

16

7

35

2

5

+10% to agility

+10% to intelligence

+5% to intelligence and perception

+ 10% to strength

Vitality

468/468

Stamina

108/130

Clarity

106/220

Jack’s highest stat was currently his agility. It was mostly the result of his unlocked professions, especially, the spearman one.

Spearman VI

Requirements

Spear Handling skill lv.30

Footwork skill lv.30

Parallel Thinking skill lv.5

Boost

+30% to agility

+20% to strength

+10% to endurance

+3% per level to agility

+2% per level to strength

+1% per level to endurance

He managed to push few of his skill above the level 25, giving him additional edge to various activities. Jack thought the +10% boost from the economy of movement skill is the most broken, as it increased his agility when moving. There weren’t many activities that required agility and you didn’t need to move at all.

Jack decided to stop his studies for now. His clarity was dropping and he was getting mentally exhausted. Jack returned books on their place and left the library. He planned to train his muscles now, so he went to the training plaza. He was greeted by Lillie. She joined her arm with his.

“So, how was the library? Were you successful?”

“Yep. I learned the spell slinging skill. I’m also permitted to use the library from now on. I’m going in as soon as my clarity recovers a bit.”

“You must teach me a bit! I feel like I will be able to cast the minor recovery spell tomorrow. I’m getting better by the day.”

“Why won’t you go into the library by yourself? I know you was looking when Rowan was teaching me.”

“Mhmm… What if they decide that my reading skill is insufficient? “

“I doubt it. Well, I can be wrong, but my guess is that they will allow anyone who can benefit from reading.“

“I suppose I will try it later. What now?”

“I’m going to train muscles.”

“Okay. I will train nearby.”

Jack knew Lillie was making advancements on him. Sure, it took him a week, but he wasn’t an idiot. He had seen his brothers flirting with girlfriends. Dead brothers, now. Jack sighed. No point in looking back. He needed to go forward.

‘I’m not sure if I should continue this’

Jack didn’t love Lillie. He liked her, but that was it. He wanted to concentrate on his training. He wasn’t sure how he should proceed with a relationship in this circumstances.

‘Now – sure, but when we cross the frontier, or when fighting a dangerous monster… ‘

He was certain he wouldn’t be able to not care about her in a fight if he continue this.

Muscle training was simple. Now, when Jack was way stronger than before, simple push-ups weren’t effective. For every exercise, Jack used additional weight, mostly in a form of stones.

After that, he trained his fighting skills with Stanley. Jack could feel that Stanley was fighting for serious. Stanley was still stronger than him, but there wasn’t much difference. Jack gains these days in skills were meager. It was to be expected. Skills numbers rise the fastest when someone learns the basics. Now, Jack was struggling to improve further.

The next day in his free training time Jack went to the library. This time, he concentrated on learning the Words of Power skill. He managed to find a few books about the subject.

‘So, my minor recovery spell is constructed from two components.’

Ding… You have now skill Words of Power – lv.1

‘The first one is drawing in essence surrounding me. The second one…’

He looked for a similar symbol across books.

‘That’s it! It’s changing essence into life mana… I need to study that more. And the first component, should I level up faster if I keep that spell up?’

Jack created only the first component in his mind. There wasn’t a difference.

‘Ok. I will keep this up and we will see.’

Jack continued to study spells.

‘The minor strength spell… it’s a bit the same. This component is refining essence in the life mana like before, but it is in a bigger one, being part of it.’

Jack compared his findings with books.

‘Genius! A person who created this spell was brilliant! The bigger part is making life mana increase strength. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything about how it was done, but… ‘

While the refining part was partially inside the bigger rune, the two worked separately. Somebody used the same lines to create two spells. If not for that, everyone would need to create both parts separately, using more intelligence. Not only that, you can’t refine all of the drawn essence into life mana or spells wouldn’t work. Runes need essence to work, without it – there’s no magic. This spell left some of essence for the part that was making life mana increase strength.

After an hour Jack started to feel a headache. He checked his clarity, but it was relatively high.

‘Is that from the rune I keep in my mind?’

Jack checked essence needed for his next level, but it was the same as before. A couple of minutes after giving up on keeping the rune in his mind pain disappeared.

‘So it was that rune. Seems it won’t bring me more essence to level up.’

Jack spend next days learning everything he could. He managed to unlock a Wizard profession thanks to his increasing skills.

Wizard I

Requirements

Rune Shaping skill lv.5

Words of Power skill lv.5

Boost

+10% to intelligence

+1% per level to intelligence

He chose it over Swordsman I profession, as his agility was quite high. He managed to find the fear spell, but it was very complicated and classified as tier three spell. Jack knew he would need to have intelligence at least over 100 to cast it, probably more. Classification was to roughly place difficulty and complication of spells. Tier three meant, that the spell was suitable to for 3rd tiers individuals, but mages could cast it faster, and warriors less focused on intelligence could only cast such spell in 4th tier. Spells with a need of more than 55 intelligence (25 intelligence boosted with 5% per level boost on the 25 level) were classified as spells for 3rd tiers. The rest of classification was similar:

0 - 12,5 – 1st tier

12,5 – 55 – 2nd tier

55 – 200 – 3rd tier (Counted 6% boost per level.)

200 – 900 – 4th tier (Counted 8% boost per level.)

Jack went to local crafter. Headquarters had crafters, unlike minor garrisons. Most of weapons and armors were produced near the Kenar mountains. Here, crafters were mostly preoccupied with repairs and inscribing spells. Jack knew that there were quite a few spells around headquarters. Mostly, there were spells reinforcing walls, and giving enhanced perception for soldiers on lookout towers. There were also spells helping with training in the training plaza. Jack expected, that there were even more spells.

“Excuse me,” Jack said to one of people in the crafting area.

“Yes?”

“I have a request.”

“What it is? Do you have any equipment for repair?”

“No. I want someone to inscribe a spell.”

“Sorry. That’s impossible.”

“Why?” Jack was negatively surprised. This was his opportunity to get the working fear spell, but he was denied.

“We can’t just create spells here and there. You need permission from the higher ups. Even if you get it, you will need something to pay for the inscription.

“What do I need?”

“Workable monster parts. Here, we don’t use money much, but if you have some money you can also use it.”

Jack didn’t have money. He went to Stanley for advice. Stanley told Jack to just inscribe it himself in their house. From now on, Jack worked on the spell in the main room. Jack didn’t have a lot of space, he needed to make the spell small.

Jack spend next weeks training, learning from the library and inscribing the spell. He was treading inscribing as agility training. Jack was surprised, when he was rewarded with an increase in his rune shaping skill.

‘After thinking about it, there is some sense in it. If I get to one hundred in a skill, it means I have reached absolute mastery. It would be stupid if rune shaping master couldn’t inscribe a spell.’

One day he was inscribing the spell in the main room. Aleena was meditating on her bed, training as usual. Jack managed to gain one level in meditation skill, but he wasn’t able to use it. He thought that he would need a better book or a teacher. Lillie walked into the room.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“Ok. What do you need?”

“Do you like me?” Lillie asked.

Jack was unprepared for this course of action, which resulted in his silence.

“You see, I like you,” Lillie continued.

“Should we talk about it in front of Aleena?” Jack tried to evade. “She can hear us”

“She is in her own world now.”

“She could have made a break. Right, Aleena?”

There was silence.

“Please, it’s important to me,” Lille said.

Jack sighed.

“Ok. I like you.”

Lillie walked up and hugged him.

“Watch out!” Jack half-shouted. “You will damage the spell.”

“Idiot.”

Jack walked off the spell space and broke their hug.

“Let’s kiss,” Lille said tilting into Jack’s direction.

“Wait!”

“What’s now?”

“I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“What do you mean now? You said yourself that you like me.”

“I do, but… We are monster hunters now. I’m spending most of my day training. I won’t have time for you. It won’t be fair.”

“That’s an excuse. We both have some time each day when our clarity and stamina are spent. Tell me your reason. “

“It’s… personal, I think.”

“Come on, it’s also about my feelings. At least, I deserve a proper reason. “

Jack ones again sighed.

“I don’t want to grow too attached to you guys.”

“Do you think we will all die?”

“I don’t know! You heard about that locust swarm, right?” Lillie nodded, and Jack continued. “It killed four of my siblings. Then there were wolves. My family survived them, but my neighbors died. Two fights, and each one brought deaths. I don’t know how it is here, but I heard that many hunters die. I will be scared that something happens to you.”

“Aren’t we already friends? Would you grief if I died now?”

“I would, but…”

“Then there’s no point in restraining your feelings,” Lillie interrupted.

“I don’t know.” He knew, but he was hesitant.

“I know that I can die in the next few months. Nobody is safe, even Aleena, or you. Training is good. You know, I think we shouldn’t train that much with each other from now on. It will be fine, if you could just spend a few minutes every few days to point my mistakes. Patrick has been better than me in fighting with spear already, so I can raise my skills with him.”

Jack could feel a pang of jealousy, even though he tried to reject Lillie. She continued.

“I think I should treasure my time. I mean, if I’m going to die, it would be stupid to spend all my time on training. I want to get as much as I can from my life. You also shouldn’t only train, you know? You will have regrets when some monster rip you to shreds.” She said with half-smile. Her eyes were sad, though.

“I’m not going to die.”

“Well, I have the same plans as you in that,” she said. Lillie leaned on him. This time Jack didn’t try to escape. Their lips joined together in the kiss.

Jack spend the next weeks slowly training. His relationship with Lillie was progressing similarly. They were kissing, cuddling and training. Jack didn’t train spear fighting with her as much as before., However, he felt that he was neglecting Lillie. He often gave her advices about magic. Lillie learned to cast the minor recovery spell and was close to the minor strength spell. The pair weren’t able to go all the way. There wasn’t much privacy in the headquarters. Jack also felt very awkward about doing it in front of meditating Aleena, even though Lillie didn’t mind much.

Jack didn’t learn any more spells temporary, as he was preoccupied with learning theory. His intelligence was raising and he knew that he already should be able to cast quite a few spells. He was able to use the minor strength spell in spars with Stanley, who, unfortunately for Jack, was much better than him at fighting while keeping the spell running.

Peaceful training was interrupted during the third month. The team heard the horn in the middle of day.