Mana sight
Size: 1
Size efficiency: 50%
Effectiveness: 20%
Mana manipulation
Size: 3
Size efficiency: 50%
Effectiveness: 80%
It was horrible. It was a nightmare. Hours had passed. Night was beginning to fall on Colville. And the Vonns had used every scrap of soul fire they had.
Each time they selected a skill they entered the same fugue like state. Each time they made a barely functional version of the skill that was twice the size it needed to be.
If he had the normal system he could have them at 100% effectiveness and have stats on top of it. The only benefits? They could remove these vital skills if they wanted to and supposedly they could level faster.
Oh and apparently the church of the system was hunting them for it too.
Not wanting to go to sleep having seen no practical benefits at all Kennon began to cast. With a flick of intent he informed the system he wanted to cast torch out of his hand. At the same time a mental image of the spell array appeared over his hand.
Like the soul sight skill it was a circle of geometric shapes. Almost impossible to comprehend without training. Though it was simple enough to draw. Assuming his mana didn’t fight him.
Drawing the mana towards his hand and out of his palm he was shocked how easy it was. It made weaving soul fire look like child's play. It was still hard to weave the unfamiliar array. But he could feel the system helping him. Every time he went a little of course the system took some of the energy he pumped into the spell and used it to correct the error. It made it less efficient. And thus less powerful. Any self respecting mage would work on their spells till they could do them without the system. But as the second time casting it, and the first time doing it in less than an hour, the help was appreciated.
In less than a minute a fist sized ball of weak flame hovered above Kennon's palm. Finally, he could call himself a mage.
At the same time he saw his sister creating a crumbly clay ball out of nothing but mana. Soon it flew out of her hand as if she threw it with all her might. Again, no better than grabbing a stone and tossing. But it was their first spells.
Kennon cut off mana supply to the torch and sat down next to Bev. Now that they had their fun it was time to face the truth.
“We will never be able to go home.” they said at once.
All the new magic, and revelations about the system were important. Vital. And most importantly a good distraction.
“What do we do now?” Kennon asked.
It was a pointless question. He knew the answer. But it still needed to be asked. Bev gave the obvious answer.
“We work our way out of the portal. Get a job. Level up. Find Margie’s allies and get more information. Clearly this growth system is something unique. We need to figure it out.”
Kennon said, “True. We should probably avoid people till we are 15. We don’t want them to know we got the system early.”
“In that case the first thing to take care of is our food supply. We only have two weeks of food. And we intend to be alone for two months.”
“Before that even. We need some sleep. I will take the first watch.”
After the events of the day it wasn’t long till Bev was fast asleep.
Kennon checked the notes and messages menu in the system. But there was nothing special to them. A place to write your thoughts, and a place to send messages to anyone with the system. Either system.
An uneventful few hours later he swapped places with Bev and got some sleep. He dreamed of his home. Burning.
Kennon awoke to the sound of a gunshot.
He bolted up and out of the tent before he realized where he was. On exiting he saw Bev hunched over pelthorn with a small rifle in her hands.
He realized immediately that she had decided that adding some venison to their menu would be a good idea. And judging by the position of the sun in the sky she probably should have woken him sooner.
Remembering his new spells he decided to toss off an identify. He gave the system the mental command, then weaved his mana. It took about thirty seconds. Remarkably fast for a spell he had never cast before at all. But he knew most with any real experience could cast it in half a second. Assuming they didn’t have it inscribed and thus could cast it at the speed of thought. The results were simple.
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Pelthorn(dead) - Grazer - T0
Simple. Expected. But the fact that he could do it was profound. If he didn’t know the species this would tell him. It would also say if they were carnivorous and thus might attack. And the tier let him know the approximate strength. Anything T0 didn’t use mana at all. And would easily die with a bullet to the head. T1 had the oddball weak magical creatures. Such as the carnivorous plants that lured in insects with a mana enhanced scent. And the more dangerous low tier beasts such as earth rhinos that could flatten them in moments.
Without backup they would stay clear from unknown T1’s.
“Quit dawdling and help me carry it.” said Bev.
Kennon rushed over and picked it up by the rear legs.
In moments Bev was dressing it. Letting the river wash away the filth.
“Sorry about your nightmares Kennon” she said.
He shrugged, “It is to be expected. I’m sorry about yours.”
Nothing else was said till the pelt horn was hanging, skinned, and relieved of its namesake antlers.
“I think we should split up. I’ll work at the camp. You get supplies for me to work with.” Bev said.
He agreed. There was no need for any more planning. Or for any explanations. Her intentions flowed through their bond like water.
They needed levels. They needed supplies. They needed tools, shelter. Their packs had everything they needed to survive. But it couldn’t hold enough to have real safety. The gun was powered by mana bullets. So it would never run out. But there were beasts in this portal that it couldn’t scratch. They had knives. But they weren’t meant for fighting. They had a camouflaged base of operations. But illusions were not as safe as walls.
And there was always the concern that they had humans hunting them as well. Margie made it very clear that the transport here would be almost impossible to detect. And the exact location in the portal was completely impossible to detect. But Kennon would have said the same about killing Margie.
So while Bev arranged a fire pit with river stones, Kennon went to the nearest tree, pulled out his hatchet and started cutting wood. Just for the sake of it he identified the gold leafed, white barked tree.
Goldleaf - Tree - T0
Nothing new. But one of these days it would be new. And the practice didn’t hurt.
By lunch he had hauled all the reachable branches from the nearby trees over. While he did he felt something stirring inside him. While Bev ate a ration bar from her pack Kennon activated soul sight.
It was odd. His soul had clearly grown. Not much. Not even a tenth over again. But it had grown. He had always been told that the first levels came relatively quickly. But no one had mentioned being able to see your soul grow. Of course, no one had said anything about seeing your soul at all.
Now that he thought about it none of the villagers he talked to ever mentioned the connection between the soul and the system at all. Only Margie. Perhaps it was a secret? Or just not well known.
In any case what was known was that all of your accomplishments after integration helped you level up. Killing was a well known and common method of leveling. But simply starting a fire helped you level too. Though something as minor as collecting wood wouldn’t level you up quickly. And would be completely worthless for reaching higher levels.
And they really needed the levels right now. So once they had a decent supply, chopping wood was out. Simply casting random useless spells was better than that.
He remembered that he had a free slot to inscribe a spell. And asked Bev her thoughts.
“For the inscribed spell, it is more about which one we may need in a rush. Not the most valuable. I’m thinking identify or rock throw.”
“I understand identify. But why rock throw?”
“It would be about as useful as the others. And it is cool”
“That works. If you plan to stay here building then I should take identify. You can take rock throw. Though we should both practice if we want to get new spells.”
Once they were in agreement Kennon selected the spell Identify to inscribe.
Do you wish to inscribe identify? This is painful to reverse.
Yes
Manual or automatic inscription? Manual is recommended.
He had no clue how hard manual inscription would be. He knew arch mages did it. But he was no arch mage. Recommended or not, he wanted the easy way. At least for now.
Automatic.
He nearly collapsed to the ground. Only maintaining enough control to slow his descent before he entered another fugue the same as with gaining a skill. Only this time it was not his soul he saw. It was his mana core. Mana naturally circulated around the body. But it was generated and stored in the core. A metaphysical organ that overlapped the physical heart.
He watched as an unknown force of extreme power forced his mana out of his control. It formed a pattern of the spell over his core. Then it began to burn. His very being was being seared with his own mana. He tried to scream but he couldn’t move. What felt like an eternity later the burning stopped. And the unknown force sealed the wound with its iron clad will.
He woke up in the tent. Bev kneeling beside him.
“How long was I out?”
“An hour.”
Kennon laughed darkly. It felt so much longer than that. He had been told inscription was uncomfortable. But that went beyond discomfort.
“When you inscribe, choose manual. Maybe it will hurt less.”
Bev nodded, then entered her own inscription fugue.
While she went through what would hopefully be an easier time Kennon checked his status page.
Name: Kennon Vonn
Age: 14
Class: initiate
Level: 1
Soul points: 0/10
System points: N/A
growth system points: 1
Health: Good.
Mana: 98/100
Conditions: twin bond
Soul skills.
Soul sight: 2/100
Mana sight: 2/20
Mana manipulation: 6/80
Spell inscriptions 1/1
identify(automatic)
Proficiencies
Fire magic- level 1
Wind magic- level 1
Water magic- level 1
Earth magic- level 1
Divination magic - level 1
