Name: Reigner

Race: Human

level: 1

Class: Summoner

Health: 1240/1240

HP Regen: 1.5/minute

Stamina: 2370/2370

SP Regen: 78/minute

Mana: 163/285 (+100)

MP Regen: 13/minute

Strength: 96

Constitution: 74

Dexterity: 89

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 9

My mana has increased by over half with that bonus. Most likely from the robe I’m wearing. Thank you, Sara. Still, mana is my weakest resource right now.

I appraise the glass marble that was kindly returned to me.

[Summoned Mana Marble]

Quality: Crude (Magical)

Weight: 600 g

Value: 1 copper – 10 copper

I frown down at the ping pong ball sized sphere of glass. I really need to level up my appraisal skill. The current information the skill provides is next to useless. Well, At least I can see how much something weighs. I’ll have to rely solely on the spell description to keep track of changes for now.

Summon Mana Marble

Rank: 1

Cost: 45 MP

Effect: 18 MP (base 15)

Description: Summons your mana into a physical form. The marble, when activated, will give the holder some mana. Higher rank increases effect. Summoned item will vanish after 10 hours.

The mana has increased for both the cost and effect. I toss the marble with my free hand and after catching it, place it into my storage. I will summon a bunch of these and store them in my pouch for when I need more mana. Constantly summoning them will also be great for ranking up the skill.

“…even listening?” Richard says from next to me.

I look around see that we have walked past the others and are now standing on top of a small rise. “Ah… sorry I got a bit distracted.” I take my hand off Richard’s shoulder and turn around. “Let’s meet up with the others.”

Richard walks next to me “Well, I’m glad to see you are taking it seriously at least.”

Nodding I say, “It’s not too bad since I’m only level one. Mana won’t be an issue when I have more points in intelligence and wisdom.”

Yui and Miko wave and start jogging towards us.

Richard stops and turns to me “What are you talking about?”

“Intelligence is currently my lowest stat. I realised I can store my mana marbles for use in an emergency,”

“Is that what that was? Mana is important for a caster yes, but that is not what I’m referring to.” He places his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eye. “Getting on the wrong side of the city rulers can be a death sentence.”

“What can be a death sentence?” asks Yui with Miko right behind her.

Richard removes his hand and turns to the others. “Reigner was just threatened by someone from GorikTar.”

Waving my hands towards Richard, I say “Whoa there. He hardly threatened me.”

“He basically said he is going to kill you if you move too far away from the tower knights!”

I shake my head “Yeah nah, He was just giving helpful advice to a first timer.”

“Do you know who it was?” Asks Yui.

“Yeah, it was Khem… something” I have always been terrible at remembering names.

“Khemrok, of the AxeTar Clan” Richard supplies.

Yui’s eyebrows furrow, looking concerned. “AxeTar is a powerful clan inside GorikTar, and Khemrok is the clanleader’s son.” Yui looks towards me “Don’t know why he would be on the first floor. Hopefully he had some important business and won’t remember you.”

“Actually, he knew who Reigner was, called him an outworlder” Richard said.

Miko gasps and says, “I have heard stories of climbers pissing off nobles before being found dead, days later.”

Running my fingers along by beard I say, “I don’t think it’s as serious as that. He did not seem like a ‘strikes from the shadows’ type to me.”

“AxeTar Clan are the frontliners for GorikTar and mostly consist of Warriors, Berserkers, and Planewalkers.” Yui said.

“Can we go to the goblin camp now?” Asks Miko as she scratches the back of her ear. “I think we have enough rabbit meat to trade in.”

While Yui guided us to the goblins Richard asked me about my mana marble spell. Apparently, most casters can only channel mana and need to buy an expensive item if they want to store it for later use. Richard offered to channel the cost of mana to me in exchange for some mana marbles before a battle. Miko overheard the conversation and asked if she could buy some, since she can’t channel mana. I agreed to both requests and supplied them with three mana marbles each. When asked, Yui refused, saying that she has a mana storage device that she recharges at the guild.

After summoning the third marble for Miko, a notification appeared.

+1 Intelligence.

Nice! Gaining stats from using magic feels oh so satisfying.

“I expected my spell to rank up again after how much I have been casting it recently.” I say as we climb up another small hill.

“Oh, I know this one!” says Miko, walking in front of me. “Your class spells and whatever, can’t be a higher rank than your class level.”

Yui stops at the top of the hill and sighs “Damn, a group is already camping the goblins.”

Camping creatures is a term used in old school rpg games where you would pick a spawn to sit at while killing anything that respawns, typically for hours on end. Sounds boring but if you are with a group of others can be a lot of fun. Especially if you are aiming for a particular bit of loot. Hearing the term used here feels surreal.

Miko, moves to Yui’s side “Aw. I was hoping to loot some iron from the forge.”

Down the hill I see a goblin fort surrounded by a shabby stone wall. At the gate of the wall are a group of adventurers in battle against a swarm of goblins.

The sound of heavy breathing accompanies Richard as he reaches the top of the hill. “Maybe we can camp another part of the keep.”

“No harm in asking” said Yui as she starts heading down the hill.

As we made our way towards the keep, I could see that the group of adventurers are a team of dwarves. They are all wearing heavy leather and chainmail and they all have a shield and either a hammer, axe, or pickaxe. I can’t identify their class type from just observation, and reflectively use inspect, only to realise a few seconds later that’s not a skill I have access to anymore.

I slap my hand to my forehead feeling like an idiot.

Miko’s ears twitch in front of me and she turns her head to look at what caused the sound. I give her a little wave and she smiles back before turning away.

I have an Identify spell which is unidentified, as I have not checked its description. I bring up the spell’s details.

Identify

Rank: 0

Cost: 20 MP

Description:

Focus on a person or creature to see their Health, level, class, and race. Identify needs to be at the level or higher of the target for all information to be displayed. A bar representing current health will be displayed above the targets head for five minutes.

Nice. It’s a lot like my old skill only this one also provides a health bar. That will be handy for keeping track of friend and foe alike. I cast the spell on Miko as she is walking right in front of me. The spell is almost instant, taking less than a second to cast.

A window displaying information forms in front of me.

[Miko]

Health: ??? / 100%

Class: ???

Level: ???

Race: Half-kin. (Half Beastkin, Half Human)

Miko’s body stiffens for a second and she stops walking. “Watch out!” she says as she moves into a defensive stance and pulls out a shield and mace from storage. “Someone just identified me.” Yui grabs her sword, from it’s sheath by her side and scans the area around us with her eyes. “Do you know what direction the spell came from?”

Miko turns to look directly behind me “Up the hill, behind us!”

“Uh, sorry Miko. That was me. I was trying out the new spell I learned today.” I say, I reach up and scratch the back of my head. “I thought it would be useful to keep track of every one’s health.”

Miko sighs and puts her shield back into storage. “You really are a noob, Reigner.”

Yui smiles and continues walking down the hill.

“The spell lets you estimate how many attacks it would take to kill a creature, or person. Never use it on someone you have just met unless you mean them harm.” Says Richard from next to me.

“Identify is considered a hostile spell by adventurers.” Says Miko, who is still holding her mace by her side. “If you let someone that means you harm walk away with that information, they might come back with a way to insta-kill you.”

Yui turns her head towards me. “It is often considered self defence when an adventurer kills someone that casted identify on them.”

Richard chuckles. “My brother and I used to prank each other all the time with it. Imagine sitting on the privy only to be hit with that spell.”

Miko laughs “Crappy place for that to happen!”

Turning to Richard I ask, “So how do you keep track of everyone’s health?”

“I’m in a group with Miko and Yui and that gives me access to their health, stamina, and mana levels. Now that you mention it. I’m surprised Yui has not invited you.”

Yui stumbles mid step and hops a little to catch her balance “Ah that’s because… Well, I have a very good reason why I have not invited our newest member into the party yet.”

Miko laughs and pushes Yui’s shoulder forcing her to take a step to the side. “You mean that you forgot, right?”

“No way!” Yui chuckles. “A team leader forgetting something like that would be terrible. I just thought that Reigner would not get much experience and should wait until he is level five before joining us.”

“That makes sense.” Richard said from my side. “Since we are such a higher level, the experience, XP for short, from anything you kill will be divided up between the four of us, and since we are higher level, we would be taking an even greater chunk of XP from you. It will be better for you to kill outside the group, so you get the maximum experience. Once you get closer to our level the penalty will not be so severe.

Feels like this world has so many rules in place, or maybe I just never paid any attention to them. Only time I worked with the support group was when there was some kind of puzzle or secret door discovered and I couldn’t just cut my way through it.

“Okay, so long story short, I should not use the identify spell on those dwarves over there?”

“Not unless you want to fight with them. On that note, leave the talking to me” said Yui as we get within range of the group.

The dwarves finish killing the last goblin and take a second to catch their breath. One of them notices us and elbows the dwarf next to them. The only difference I can see between the dwarves are their beards. Each one is braided differently with their own individual and unique decorations. Otherwise, apart from the weapons they are using, they all look exactly alike.

One of them, carrying a shield and what looks to be a combination of hammer and pickaxe, breaks from the group and steps closer to us. A symbol of an anvil with an axe behind it is engraved on his pauldron.

Yui bows towards the dwarf “Greetings to the Axe and Anvil. I am Yui and we are part of the Ex-terra guild and I was hoping we could share the fort with you.”

The dwarf spits some blood onto the grass next to him and looks each of us up and done. Once the dwarf reaches me his eyes widen slightly and a grin forms on his face. “Hah, you be that new fella from yesterday morning. What are you doing wearing robes? You have a warrior’s body! My smith ancestors cries for all the plate armour you could be wearing.”

“Plate is overrated. It’s like you are planning to get hit. While this is not my normal wear, I must admit it’s way more comfortable than heavy armour. And besides,” I summon a mana marble and toss it over to the dwarf. “I’m a caster, not a warrior.”

The dwarf catches the marble and looks it over. “Oh, not bad. But being a caster is no excuse for not wearing heavy armour!” The dwarf stores the marble and concentrates for a moment. His hand glows purple with magic and forms into the shape of a bottle. The dwarf tosses the bottle to me underhand. “I’m a conjurer but you don’t see me dallying about in a dress!”

Catching the bottle, I use appraisal.

[Dwarven mead]

Quality: Fine (Magical)

Weight: 1.1 kg

Value: 50 copper – 1 silver

“It’s my family recipe. Might only be an imitation of the real thing but it still provides a small boost to mood and mana regeneration.”

Richard’s eyes light up next to me “Amazing, you are able to choose what you can summon with your spell?”

“Aye, if I can make it, I can conjure it up.”

I smile widely to the dwarf, walk up to him, and shake his hand. “Thank you. I’ll drink it tonight in celebration of gaining a few levels and my first day in the tower.”

The dwarf laughs “Just be sure to drink it before this time tomorrow! Now, as for the fort. We are making our way to the top floor and plan to camp the captain for a few days. You are welcome to the rest of it.”

The dwarf grins at me before turning back to his team.

“Oh, before you go, could I get your name?”

“I be Torva Flatpick. Pleasure to meet you in person, Reigner.” Torva nods towards Yui “Miss Gushiken” and walks back to his group.

We wait a moment as the group of dwarves move deeper into the fort.

“She was nice” said Richard, next to me.

“Yeah, I hope you plan to share that wine.” I see Miko’s eyes glued to the bottle in my hands and can hear the smacking of her lips.

I place the bottle into my storage “You are telling me that was a woman? She had a full beard”.

Richard laughs “The only way to tell is by their name. Unless you are a dwarf yourself, or so I have read.”

Yui steps up to the open gate of the fort and looks to the left “Let’s start at the slime pit and let Reigner grind a little. We can work our way up from there.”

“Oh, let’s not forget the forge!” said Miko.

Richard casts a spell and an orb of light appears over everyone’s right shoulder. “Well, you are the tank. Lead us down.”