A 3 foot tall golem consisting of a plethora of mismatched rocks sat cross-legged on the floor of the cave. Its torso was about the size of a large watermelon and above that sat an almost cube shaped head that bore a close resemblance to a tissue box, if that tissue box were chiseled out of stone by someone wearing a blindfold and happened to have a horizontal slit cut into it from which two glowing blue eyes shown. It had two arms and legs, though they weren't even close to being symmetrical. The hands looked like someone had taken a baseball-sized rock and glued a series of interlocking pebbles onto it in an attempt to form fingers. The feet were similar, except they were more of a rectangular shape.

This majestic creature just so happens to be Jed, who is currently deep in concentration as half a dozen pebbles float around him like a hula hoop. One by one he fires the tiny stones through the air like bullets and they bounce off of the back wall of the cave with a harmless clattering sound.

Congratulations!Your level in Earth Magic has increased to level 2!Intelligence +2

Wisdom +1

'Wow, I really can use magic! This is awesome, I even gained stat points.'

He stands up and just barely resists the urge to strike a victory pose before wobbling over to where the projectiles had landed. He stumbles a few times but manages to regain his balance, thankfully avoiding an embarrassing face plant onto the floor. There are six small chips in the wall that were suspiciously pebble-sized, the marks are small and don't look like anything more than scrapes which barely damaged the surface.

'Well... not quite as powerful as I thought, but I bet getting hit with that would sting like a bitch.'

After taking a moment to console himself and duct tape his remaining dignity back together, Jed realizes something.

'The reason I am so clumsy is most likely due to the fact that my Dexterity and Agility are really low. I guess it makes sense that a walking slab of rubble wouldn't be very graceful. I should definitely stick a few points into those two once I level up. Maybe I can find a few of those bats to kill, revenge and experience at the same time sounds too good to pass up.'

Jed ventures off into a side passage connected to the massive room, determined to kill two birds with one stone, or bats in this case. Taking great care to do his best to remain quiet, he creeps through the shadows with the subtlety of a marching band. He really can't help it, those legs of his just don't want to move the way he wants them to and the sound of rock scraping rock echoes down the tunnel.

'This is going to be difficult, I won't be able to hit them mid-flight so I need to have the element of surprise.'

He peers down at the misshapen hunks that he calls feet and lets loose an internal sigh. Using the edge of the cave to steady himself, Jed is able to lessen the noise to a decent degree and he decides to continue on. The tunnel splits into two and he decides to go left which brings him into an alcove where the air is damp and small streams of water trickle down from the ceiling and along the walls.

Off to the side, tucked behind a nook in the wall, Jed spies his prey. His eyes grow brighter, almost like it is his way of smiling. Five bats hang upside down, probably having sweet dreams about bugs or fruit or something. The one in the middle is much bigger than the others, almost three times their size. With its wings expanded it could probably rival Jed for size.

'Muahahaha, I've finally found some and they're even asleep. Prepare to meet your doom, you winged rats.'

His outstretched hand turns into the sun of a mini solar system made up of stone pellets and he trains his eyes at the unsuspecting creatures and this time fires off all of his pebbles at once like a shotgun. Quantity over quality looks to be his plan here.

Two of the smaller bats are shredded by the barrage and die almost instantly, a third has one of its wings blown apart and falls to the ground, shrieking in pain. The fourth smaller bat quickly takes off flying in such a panic that it smacks into a wall and scurries to right itself so that it may take off again. The large one is hit with a few of the small stones but only one seems to be effective because it hit the thing right in the damn eye. It unfurls its wings and growls with rage, blood dripping across its face.

'Of course the one time I get a lucky shot on an eye and it is on a creature that doesn't even need it to see! And since when do bats growl?'

Ignoring the others for the moment, Jed focuses his attention on the wounded bat that is crawling its way along the floor, he takes this chance to try his magic on something bigger than pebbles. His gaze turns upward to one of the less imposing stalactites and he wills it to crack horizontally, causing the tip of it to free fall, piercing the back of the already half dead bat on the floor. It is turned into a doughnut made of blood and fur.

'That was a bit overkill, I almost feel bad for it. I had to try it though, that was too cool.'

Jed mentally berates himself when he realizes that it was dumb to get distracted like that, even if they're not any real danger. He silently vows to be more careful in the future and then looks back up. The bat that had hit the wall earlier is nowhere to be found, it probably fled down the tunnel to safety but where was the big one?

Just as he was thinking that, something heavy slams into him from behind and the impact combined with his poor balance sends him toppling forward like a rag doll. As he tries to push himself back up, a deafening screech resounds throughout the cove and another blow squishes him against the floor. He can feel a few cracks forming in his body and it hurts!

'Since when do rocks have nerves, and more importantly, what kind of bat is this!? Are they feeding these things steroids in this world?'

The full weight of how bad a situation this is finally bears down on Jed and he curses his carelessness. There is a time and place to experiment with baking bat doughnuts, but it wasn't now in his first fight at level 1! Somewhere between the flurry of blows from that seriously overweight bat, Jed remembers he has another skill!

From the description he can only guess at how it works, but now is a really good time to figure it out, preferably before his body is ground into sand. Imagining that he is pulling the mana out of the surrounding earth and into himself, Jed is surprised at how naturally it comes to him and before long bits of gravel start breaking off from the ground and worming their way into the cracks in his skin.

'There we go, that should keep me alive long enough to figure something out. Why hasn't the damn thing got-' His interior dialogue is momentarily interrupted by a certain rude bat slamming into him. '-gotten tired yet? Time to try something crazy!'

Since he can't seem to get off of the floor with the constant BATtering and his shitty balance, Jed reaches an arm out behind himself and hopes for the best. The baseball sized hand detaches itself from his arm with a bit of magical assistance and he wills it to float a few feet into the air.

'I really hope this works.'

Jed starts trying to focus a big pool of mana inside the rock that was once his hand, imagining it expanding until it popped. It starts to vibrate dangerously in midair for a few seconds and then there is a loud cracking noise, following by shrapnel filling the entire room as it explodes.

He hears a thud somewhere off to his right and then silence. Flipping himself over onto his side with his one good arm, he notices that Assimilation seems to still be in effect because it is already starting to rebuild his missing hand and he is also now laying in an oval shaped depression in the floor. With no small amount of effort he manages to find his footing and hobbles over to where he'd heard that sound.

Twitching in a puddle of blood with tiny rock shards sticking out of every inch of its body was the monster bat that had given him so much trouble. Looking at its current pitiful state, Jed can't help but wonder how this thing got the better of him just moments ago. Careful not to fall over, he slowly raises a foot up and brings it down hard, squashing the thing's face like a grape.

*Bloop!*

Battle ReportYou have slain the following:3x Bat Lvl 1

1x Goliath Bat Lvl 5The following enemies escaped:1x Bat Lvl 1

*Bloop!*

Congratulations!Your level in Earth Magic has increased to level 4!Intelligence +4

Wisdom +2

Congratulations!Your level in Assimilation has increased to level 2!Vitality +2

Strength +1

*Bloop!*

Congratulations!You have reached level 2!+10 Unused stat points.

'Wow, that bat was a pain in the ass but it looks like it payed off big time. Status.'

*Bloop!*

Status Information (Unspent:10)NameJedAge23RaceLesser Earth ElementalGenderN/ALevel2ClassN/AHealth187/220Mana112/180Strength21Agility5Vitality22Dexterity5Intelligence21Wisdom18

'I got some nice upgrades here and it looks like Health and Mana scale directly with Vitality and Wisdom, that's good to know. That must mean that Intelligence is magic damage or something similar and Strength is obvious. I don't see any defensive stat though, I wonder if that's also a part of it. Oh, right!'

He quickly pops 5 points each into Dexterity and Agility.

Status InformationNameJedAge23

RaceLesser Earth ElementalGenderN/ALevel2

ClassN/AHealth190/220Mana116/180

Strength21Agility10Vitality22Dexterity10Intelligence21Wisdom18

'Yesssss, finally I can walk in a straight line! Look out world, I can now move at a satisfactory level!'

Jed starts to walk around in circles, even daring to go so far as to walk backwards for a little while. What a badass. Advertisement Previous

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Chapter RSS About the author 1 Fictions 0 Posts 0 Threads Swag_Wizard Follow Author Tuesday, September 1, 2015 11:45:17 AM

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