CHAPTER 10: FIRST TIER PROMOTION

“Looks like I’m getting quite an upgrade, hahaha.” Hikivi laughed out joyfully.

“Yeah right, we’ll be getting there too soon enough.” Yimso said as they all rolled their eyes at him.

From the first goblins they killed outside the cave to the goblin shaman in the end, especially the goblin shaman, they had given the team enough experience for all of them to reach level 10.

“Come on then, let’s get going!” Yimso shouted as he sheathed his sword after he was done wiping away the blood from the blade.

“Yeah, we need to look for a place to complete our class promotions as well.” Puvi agreed, doing the same with his swords.

“Yeah, coming!”

Hikivi said, coming to them with the cursed staff in his hand.

On the way out of the cave, they suddenly stopped after hearing noises coming from ahead.

“What could it be now?” Hikivi thought out loud. Yimso shrugged his shoulders, showing that he didn’t have any idea either.

“Well, let’s check it out then.”

They then slowly made their way towards the direction of the sound. Soon, thay made their way towards a room.

As they made their way towards the room, their expressions suddenly turned weird.

“Hey, anyone else feel a sense of déjà vu?” Hikivi asked..

“…”

The corner of their mouths twitched as they heard him. They ignored Hikivi’s question and made their way towards the room.

When they peeked into the room, they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Inside they saw a couple of goblins wildly copulating again.

“…”

They turned to look at each other and smiled bitterly.

“Well, we can’t just leave them like this now, can we?” Yimso said as he scratched his head.

They didn’t know why or how they kept encountering such situations.

“Yeah, let’s get them.” Puvi said.

At those words, Puvi shot out from the group and cut down the two oblivious goblins in an instant.

After finishing off the two goblins they didn’t find any more. Those two must have been the last ones. This is what they concluded.

“Sigh, fresh air.” They sighed as one.

After getting out of the cave, they took several deep breaths.

They had found it extremely uncomfortable and difficult to breathe inside the cave as the air inside was filled with the stench of blood and rotting flesh.

Now they could relax after coming out of there.

“So, what do we do now? Any suggestions?” Yimso asked them while he stretched himself.

“Let’s just go back to camp and then we can take turns to complete our promotion ceremonies.”

Titus suggested.

“Well?” Yimso looked towards the other two, waiting to see if there were any other suggestions.

In the end, everyone agreed to Titus’ suggestion as they didn’t have any other suggestions, and moreover they wanted to complete their promotion ceremonies as well, so they all agreed.

As everyone had agreed, they all made their way back towards the camp they had set up in the forest.

The sun had started to set by the time they got to their camp. After reaching the camp, the first thing they did was allocate their unspent stat points.

Yimso added both to his vitality, increasing his hp by 200 points. Puvi added one each to strength and agility and the two mages both added one each to strength and intelligence.

“So who is going to promote first?” Yimso asked as he turned towards the rest.

*****

After a short discussion, they decided to have Hikivi and Titus promote first.

The two mages sat down crossed leg in the centre of the camp as Yimso and Puvi stood guard.

During the promotion ceremony of a magic wielder class, a lot of mana from the environment is absorbed to strengthen the mage.

This causes the mana density in the area to increase and attracts creatures.

Sometimes this also attracts strong monsters towards them mistaking it for some treasure being born.

The monsters attracted will usually attack anyone in the area; this is why they didn’t promote all at once, to prevent their promotion from being disturbed.

The two mages called out their system menu’s and selected the class promotion option.

[Required level for class promotion reached, would you like to promote now?][Yes/No]

Titus immediately selected ‘yes’, and his consciousness slowly drifted out of his body. Or rather, it went deeper into his body; quite literally.

He could see a complex network of thread like structures running throughout his body from everywhere to everywhere with his magic power constantly travelling through them. The structures were the densest around his heart.

Hikivi on the other hand was given another prompt by the system after he chose to promote.

[Low grade cursed item detected in possession of host. Item is compatible with host. Would you like to consume the item during the promotion?]

‘Yes’

He made his discussion, and immediately after, his consciousness too entered the depths of body.

The promotion ceremony from the first tier to the second tier was not difficult.

In every person’s body, there were several ‘nodes’ of magic power and thread like channels called ‘mana pathways’ connected to each other.

All together they made up the individual’s ‘mana circuit’ and it looked quite similar to an additional nervous system.

This mana circuit is what produced mana in their body.

During the tier promotion, you would control the mana in the environment and forcefully inject it into your mana circuit.

You would then have to absorb as much of it as you can and make it your own, after which, the nodes that have fused with the attribute you have an affinity with will appear.

This simulation will increase the mana in your bodies and the number of nodes in their bodies would also rise accordingly.

The mana circuit would then start to generate attributed mana instead.

Since Titus currently had an affinity in two elements, fire and wind, he would have to convert the nodes in his body to those two elements.

Of course, he could later attain an affinity with another element or even gain a ‘deviant’ ability.

There were 4 basic magic particles they knew of in this world; earth, air (or you could call it wind magic as well), fire and water.

Then there were deviant abilities that could be attained directly or by advancing in the 4 basic elements.

.Water>Ice

.Water>Plant

.Air/Wind>Sound

.Air/Wind>Lightning

.Earth>Metal

.Earth>Gravity

.Fire>Lightning

.Fire+ Earth>Magma

Apart from elemental deviants, there were some special deviant abilities as well:

.Healing

.Space

.Diviner (Or prophet; predicts/looks into the future)

.Time

In the end, there was the darkness attribute and light, or as some may prefer to call it, the holy attribute which often tended to clash.

*****

Titus began by slowly pulling in the mana from the surrounding, creating an invisible vortex of mana above him as it gathered and then proceeded to convert it into the fire and wind element as it circulated in his body.

New nodes also continuously formed and strengthened.

In Hikivi’s body on the other hand, the nodes were being fused with dark attribute while he was also fighting the cursed weapon which had been weakened by the system.

The cursed item continuously sent mental attacks as it tried to corrupt his mind, turning him into a demon.

It didn’t work though, as it was already weakened and Hikivi himself specialised in the dark attribute which made the attacks even less effective.

But the cursed item didn’t stop attacking him as the evil spirit residing in it refused to give up.

After finally defeating the cursed item, Hikivi shifted his attention to his mana circuit.

The nodes in his body that had transformed into what looked like dark orbs after fusing with the dark element earlier.

Now however, they seemed to be covered by blood red rune markings all over them.

These runes had appeared after Hikivi subdued the evil spirit.

The system seems to have helped him by integrating the power of the curse into him along with the power of darkness, strengthening Hikivi even further.

*****

Back at the camp, Puvi and Yimso who were keeping guard could feel the vortex of mana formed over their friends.

It wasn’t visible to the naked eyes but they could feel the concentration of mana around the camp getting higher.

But they weren’t the only ones that felt the rise in magic density. Nearby monsters too had discovered it as they came looking in hopes of finding a newborn natural treasure.

Normally, the commotion caused by the promotion ceremony was not as notable as this, but it was much more noticeable when someone with double affinities or more was going through their promotion.

And there were two of them with double affinities no less; so it was bound to create a massive commotion.

The monsters had tried to attack the mages immediately after getting there but were stopped by the two of them, which angered the monsters and attacked them instead.

The monsters gathering around the camp were quickly done in by the two of them before they could get anywhere near the two mages.

It was only after an hour had passed since they begun the promotion ceremony that the mages slowly opened their eyes.

The mana vortex above their heads too, quickly dissipated.

“How did it go?” Yimso and Puvi both asked as they walked over to them after finishing off the last monster.

“We both succeeded of course.” Hikivi and Titus grinned as they confirmed that they had succeeded.

“It went way smoother than I expected it to.” Titus said as a flame lit above one of hands while a gently spinning sphere appeared on his other hand.

‘Status’ They thought as one and checked their status through the system.

NAME: HIKIVI

LEVEL: 10(TIER-2)

HP: 1000/1000

MP: 3250/3250

RACE: HUMAN

BLOODLINE: NONE

CLASS: WARLOCK

SUB-CLASS: ALCHEMIST (APPRENTICE)

TITLES:

[TIER-2 MAGE]

EFFECTS:

HP= (V)*75

MP= (M)*125

[STATS]

STRENGTH: 7

AGILITY: 7

DEXTERITY: 10

VITALITY: 10

MAGIC: 26

[TRAITS]

-1. [OTHERWORLDER]: ???

[TALENTS]

-1. [MANA VISION] (NEW)

-ALLOWS YOU TO SEE SOMEONE’S MANA CIRCUIT AND THE FLOW OF MANA IN THE ENVIRONMENT

-2. [SOUL PEER] (NEW)

-YOU CAN SEE THE SOULS OF LIVING OR DEAD CREATURES

[TIER 2 DARK MAGIC]

-1. [DARK WHIP]

-CREATES A WHIP FORMED BY MANA

MP COST: 10/METER

-2. [BINDING CHAINS]:

-CHAINS MADE OF DARK ATTRIBUTE MANA BINDS YOUR TARGET

-POWERFUL TARGETS CAN BREAK FREE BEFORE SPELL DURATION ENDS

SPELL DURATION: 10 SECONDS

MP COST: 300

-3. [DARK BULLETS]:

-SHOOTS OUT BULLETS OF DARK MAGIC

MP COST: 50

-4. [DARK ARROW]:

-ARROW MADE OF MANA

-SLOWLY CORRODES THE BODY WHEN HIT

MP COST: 200

-5. [SPIRALLING DARK ARROW]:

-A SPIRALLING MANA ARROW

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

-CORROSION EFFECT

MP COST: 300

-6. [BONE ARROW] (NEW):

-CREATES BONE ARROWS

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

MP COST: 100

-7. [SOUL TREMOR] (NEW):

-LAUNCH A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE TARGET’S MIND CAUSING UNBEARABLE PAIN

-CHANCE TO DAMAGE THE TARGET’S SOUL

MP COST: 500

-8. [WILDERNESS MADNESS]:

-REMOVES NEGATIVE EFFECT ON TARGET AND PHYSICALLY ENHANCES THEM

-PAIN NULLIFICATION EFFECT

-EXTRA DAMAGE AGAINST JUNGLE DEWLLERS

MP COST: 200

-9. [DARK REFLECTION] (NEW):

-REFLECTS BACK ANY CURSE OR NEGATIVE EFFECT SPELLS BELOW TIER-2 THAT ARE CASTED ON THE YOU

[OTHERS]

-1. [LESSER POISON RESISTANCE]:

-SLIGHTLY INCREASES POISON RESISTANCE

-2. [LESSER FIRE RESISTANCE]:

-SLIGHTLY INCREASES FIRE RESISTANCE

-3. [MEDITATION]

-SPEEDS UP MANA RECOVERY

-4. [MANA SHIELD] (NEW):

-FORMS A SHIELD THAT ABSORBS DAMAGE

-ABSORBS DAMAGE EQUALLING THE AMOUNT OF MANA USED TO CREATE IT

MP COST: 1000 OR ABOVE

NAME: TITUS

LEVEL: 10(TIER-2)

HP: 600/600

MP: 4200/4200

RACE: HUMAN

BLOODLINES: NONE

CLASS: ELEMENTALIST (FIRE, WIND)

SUB-CLASS: NONE

[TITLES]

[TIER-2 MAGE]:

EFFECTS:

HP= (V)*50

MP= (M)* 150

[STATS]

STRENGTH: 7

AGILITY: 7

DEXTERITY: 7

VITALITY: 12

MAGIC: 28

[TRAITS]

-1. [OTHERWORLDER]: ???

[TALENTS]

-1. [MANA VISION] (NEW):

-ALLOWS YOU TO SEE SOMEONE’S MANA CIRCUIT AND MANA IN THE ENVIRONMENT

[TIER 2 FLAME MAGIC]

-1. [FIRE BALL]:

-CHANCE TO INFLICT ‘BURN’ STATUS ON TARGET

-INCREASE DAMAGE BY USING MORE MANA

MP COST: 100

-2. [FIRE BULLETS]:

-SHOOTS BULLETS FORMED OF FLAME MAGIC

MP COST: 50

-3. [FLAME ARROW]:

-AN ARROW MADE OF MANA

-EXPLOSION DAMAGE

MP COST: 200

-4. [SPIRALLING FLAME ARROW]:

-A SPIRALLING MANA ARROW

-EXPLOSION DAMAGE

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

MP COST: 300

-5. [FIRE BALL BARRAGE] (NEW):

-SUMMONS SEVERAL LARGE FIRE BALLS AND RAIN THEM DOWN ON A SPECIFIC SPOT

CASTING TIME: 1 MINUTE

MP COST: 2000

[TIER 2 WIND MAGIC]

-1. [WIND BLADE]:

-SHOOTS OUT A BLADE OF WIND

MP COST: 300

-2. [WIND BULLET]:

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

MP COST: 50

-3. [WIND ARROW]:

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

MP COST: 200

-4. [SPIRALLING WIND ARROW]:

-ARMOUR PENETRATION

MP COST: 300

-5. [WIND CANNON] (NEW):

-CREATES A STRONG GUST OF WIND THAT DOES NO DAMAGE

MP COST: 50

[OTHERS]:

-1. [MEDITATION]:

-SPEEDS UP MANA RECOVERY RATE BY MEDITATING

-2. [LIGHT HEALING]:

-CAN HEAL LIGHT WOUNDS ON THE TARGET

-RESTORES 250 HP

MP COST: 200

-3. [MANA SHIELD] (NEW):

MP COST 1000 OR ABOVE

*****

Hikivi had changed classes from dark mage to ‘warlock’, an even rarer class that focuses on support, specialising in casting control type spells and de buffs to weaken his targets.

It would have been difficult for Hikivi to obtain this class even with his high affinity towards the darkness element but that had changed once he was able to subdue the evil spirit inside the curse item.

Titus on the other hand obtained the ‘elementalist’ class.

This was a heavy magic damage dealer class that could only be attained by having a decent level affinity with at least two of the basic elements.

The value and power of this class rose according to the number of elements the mage has an affinity with.

He found that some spells like mana bullet and mana arrow had changed after their mana circuit started generating elemental mana.

Some had even become more powerful and easier to cast while the amount of mana needed to cast them decreased instead.

The dark attribute in the spells seemed to have given them all a corrosive nature.

There was an additional ‘talent’ page above the magic spells as well.

Hikivi had gained the mana vision and soul peer abilities. There was no need to explain the mana vision ability but the ‘soul peer’ ability really intrigued him so he couldn’t help but ask the system for an explanation.

Upon asking, the system gave him a more elaborated explanation on his new ability.

He found that he could now see the souls of the people around him. But that was not all though.

This ability could also help him in telling whether a person was being honest or not by peering directly into their soul while they were talking with him.

Hikivi also gained new dark spells; ‘bone arrow’, ‘soul tremor’, ‘wilderness madness’ and ‘dark reflection’ which seemed to have came from the cursed item.

The half complete ‘mana shield’ that he and Titus had aimed to create at first had also been completed and made into an actual spell by the system.

*****

As for Tito he had also gained the mana vision ability. Some of his spells too, had been changed to their elemental variants.

The fire magic variants would cause explosion damage and the wind element ones seemed to all have an armour penetration effect.

He had also gained the mana shield and the new aoe fire ball barrage spell.

Both mages had their magic attribute double while the rest were increased according to their class.

“Hey Titus, tell me what spells did you obtain?”

“I gained a large scale aoe spell and also the…”

Excited, Hikivi and Titus discussed animatedly as they talked about their new spells.

*****

“Well, you two should get started as well.” Titus said as he looked at the two who had stood guard earlier.

It was their turn to stand guard now but they probably wouldn’t need to do much as the commotion caused by them would be a lot smaller.

“Albright then, let’s begin.” Yimso nodded.

They too took off their equipment and sat crossed legged with only their shorts on.

They then selected the promotion option.

[Requirement for promotion reached. Would you like to promote?][Yes/No]

They both selected ‘yes’ and closed their eyes.

*****

END OF CHAPTER 10: FIRST TIER PROMOTION