B3C9: The Initiate

With a definitive goal and a timeline on which to complete it, I found myself focused to an extent I’d rarely ever been, and it showed in how quickly I was managing to level my skills.

Part of the uptick in speed was also from training more efficiently. Funneling a mana type into my various class skills on top of using the corresponding cantrip caused it to level dramatically faster, to the extent that I was cursing myself for not having done it up till now. True, it took a lot more concentration, and I found myself drained far more quickly, but it was well worth it.

Combined with my various leveling speed bonuses -- the 20% I got from my Intelligence threshold, along with the much smaller 5% well-rested bonus I theoretically sometimes got from Captain Cozy’s Nightgown of Spatial Compression -- as well as my greatly lessened need for sleep after hitting the Endurance threshold, I imagined that I was taking something that was normally done in months and compressing it into weeks instead.

With me working non-stop (or rather, non-stop save for an Oath-mandated break to chat with Verin), soon all of my spell classes were pushing towards the Initiate rank, and I’d be damned if I didn’t get them there before I next saw the archmage.

I imagined the training tended to look pretty silly at times, sitting and frowning at a cup of water as I repeatedly chilled it or making little pebble-castles, but the only beings out here to judge me were the occasional squirrel and the mosquitoes.

And if the latter were truly judging me, they didn’t live long to tell the tale.

Pest-Killing Aura protected me from their bloodsucking ways, and as the umpteenth bug fell to the ground, I at last received the notification I’d been working towards.

Death Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Death Magic!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted an augment: Augment of Instant Death

Augment of Instant Death

Spells which instantly kill a target have their restrictions slightly loosened, allowing you to cast instant death spells on targets with higher healths and sizes.

Quest Completed: Raise a basic school of magic to the Initiate rank (Repeatable).

+2500xp

+1 class point

One down. Four to go.

~~~~~~

“Yes! Good! You can do it, little guy!” I cheered on the wild badger-like creature that was valiantly attempting to claw me to death. Despite my encouragement, he really couldn’t do it: Sharp as they were, the claws bounced ineffectually off of my plate armor and the earth encasing it.

I’d been casting Summon Pebble for a while, finally managing to push it into the Initiate rank. As to be expected, the augment wasn’t anything too special, only allowing me to slightly alter the shape of the summoned pebble. Great for my pebble-castles, though.

I’d kept up with the spell even after leveling it, hoping to get Earth Magic to the Initiate rank as well. Instead of letting the pebbles just drop to the ground or making more miniature buildings, however, I’d taken to chucking them in random directions, making use of my unnatural Strength.

In an unlucky turn, I’d eventually managed to hit the creature who was currently hell-bent on teaching me a lesson. I’d considered running away or even killing it, but I realized the badger’s murderous intent actually gave me a solid opportunity.

Presently, earth mana was funneling into my feet, my armor, my gloves, and my eyes, making me feel like I’d turned into some human rock creature. My hope was that with the earth armor getting some active combat use, it would help me level my Earth Magic a bit faster. While a strain, I also periodically summoned more pebbles, gently dropping them onto the furious badger.

Wonder if I’m going to level first, or if he’s going to tucker out. Fight on lil guy! Keep trying to kill me!

Unfortunately, it looked like I was too far from hitting the Initiate rank for the poor guy, and I could see as he began to visibly flag.

Wonder if I could heal him, maybe? I’d been a bit dumb in the fact that I’d given the archmage’s Minor Flesh Homunculus back to him after getting Minor Healing to level ten. In hindsight, I definitely should have kept it until I at least got the spell class up to the Initiate rank as well, although in my defense, my friends were very, very relieved to see the gray ball of flesh gone.

With that in mind, I decided to heal the little guy. It was at least five times harder than usual, as my mana core seemed to become monstrously angry at me for using life mana while I still had earth mana flowing to my armor. When at last I managed, however, the healing spell sank into the still-furious if somewhat exhausted badger.

Advanced Internal Mana Manipulation has reached level 8!

Huh, wasn’t expecting that one.

On the badger front, much as hoped, he did seem to perk up a little. To my knowledge, the cantrip didn’t restore any stamina, but either I’d managed to heal him of some minor wounds, or the feeling of foreign mana entering him had managed to enrage him back into wakefulness.

I kept at it, not entirely sure how the system would calculate my skill growth from healing the enemy while in a battle.

Based on the new notification that appeared not much later, the calculation must have been in my favor.

Life Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Life Magic!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted a skill augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Healer’s Augment

All life-based healing effects are 5% stronger.

Weirdly boring, but also pretty amazing? I found myself a bit surprised it wasn’t listed as the standard augment for the skill, but on second thought, I realized there were probably a lot more things that life magic could do besides healing. While I’d used my vine boots a decent amount, with my cantrip and my other class skill variants, nearly all of my life-magic usage had been healing related.

Also should I feel bad that one of the first spell schools I got is hitting the Initiate rank along with one of the last ones I got? Meh. It got there in the end, didn’t it?

I read through the class quest completion notification as the badger futilely continued trying to rip into my guts. Having reached my goal on life magic, I returned to casting pebbles atop his head, using the spells augment to shape them like little hats.

This one’s a top hat. This one’s a baseball cap. This one’s a little fez!

Right when I (along with the badger) was finally starting to tire of the monotony of being furiously assaulted while conjuring miniature rock hats, my patience paid off.

Earth Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! Earth Magic has reached the Initiate rank!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted an augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Augment of Control

Grants limited control over the weight of all summoned earth, allowing you to increase or decrease the weight of any conjured rock, contingent on your Intelligence.

Huh. Similar to my light augment. Doubted it would help much with my pebbles, but then again, that probably wasn’t the goal.

I patted my training partner on his head, much to his displeasure.

“Thanks bud! I’m gonna head out now, but enjoy your hats!”

~~~~

“Hah! Hah!” Why had I never thought of this before!

The moment I touched down on the top of the next tree, I leapt off again, aiming for the next. Like a monkey on a mission, I continued on and on, moving from one tree to the next.

A few twin uses of Jet Step and Featherfoot had managed to get me to the tree tops without having to climb. From there, I’d opted to go full magical Tarzan mode, jumping through the forest with abandon.

For some extra skill-training oomph, I had the rest of my class skills channeling air mana as well, and during the longer jumps, I tried to get a cast of Gust off while mid-air.

A fair amount of my recent training spree had been dry enough that I’d had trouble sticking to it. In this case, however, I suffered no such issues, leaping about for hours.

When the notification finally came, I was still so enrapt with the thrill of my dizzying journey that I almost didn’t register it. In something of an upset, using my class skills far more than the cantrip had caused the magic school to level first.

Air Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Air Magic!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted an augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Augment of the Airwalker

Strengthens all movement-related air effects. Suspension and slow-fall effects use less mana and can now handle more weight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“T-t-t-this f-f-feels d-d-dumb.” My teeth violently chattered as I cast another round of Chill Liquid into the small pond I’d happened across. That hardly would have been a big deal, either, if I hadn’t currently been lying in the pond as well.

It was something I certainly wouldn’t have done back on Earth. For starters, I’d have been a lot more worried about whatever sorts of bacteria might have been in some random forest pond water, even if it looked pretty clean. Past that, giving myself hypothermia would have been a lot more dangerous.

It also would have been a lot less useful, a point I proved as the notification I’d been waiting for finally arrived.

You have learned a new skill: Cold Resistance

Aids your body in retaining heat and staving off hypothermia. Reduces all cold-based damage by 1%.

If resistance training is going to be one of my classes this semester, might as well grab another one to train before the class starts, right?

The freezing cold grew noticeably more tolerable, enabling me to stay in even longer. Along with casting Chill Liquid, I was channeling frost mana into all of my class skills as well, the frost from my armor chilling me even further.

Even with all of my class skills helping to push my Frost Magic up faster, it was still my cantrip that hit the Initiate rank first. The augment was standard, simply allowing the spell to become more effective at chilling larger volumes of water.

If anything, though, that only made things worse for me, as the heightened efficiency only made my self-inflicted ice bath even colder. Thankfully, the lower temperature seemed to numb my nerves to some extent -- something I imagined would have been dangerous had I not had the ability to magically warm and heal myself. After one more level in Cold Resistance, the skill that I was most focused on at last caught up to its corresponding cantrip.

Frost Magic has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Frost Magic!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted an augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Augment of Backlash Resistance

Greatly increases your resistance to the effects of your own frost magic.

“Y-y-yes! V-victory!”

~~~~~~~~~

With less than a week remaining until classes began, all of my spell classes were at last at the Initiate rank.

Annoyingly enough, getting them all to ten did not come with a hidden class quest completion like I’d gotten after learning them all. Still, with the number of class quests I’d managed to knock out, I was already well on my way to level 13. With how much the experience requirements increased with each level, it would still take me some time, but the combined 15,000 experience was nothing to scoff at.

I would have considered keeping at it a bit longer to see if I could eke out another level in a few of the skills while I was still in the right mindset, but I figured I couldn’t put off meeting with the archmage any longer. The start of the second semester was rapidly approaching, and going AWOL on him would likely look a lot worse than being a tad underleveled for his tastes.

Besides, for once I imagined even he would be pleased with my leveling speed. If anything, he’d see how seriously I was taking my cantrip training.

With that in mind, the day after Frost Magic hit ten, I hopped onto the loop and took a trip into the Magic District. Soon thereafter, I found myself at the archmage’s tower. I briefly wondered if the cooped-up wizard was ever annoyed at me showing up unannounced, but he hadn’t turned me away as of yet, and he likewise didn’t this time around either.

From the base of the tower, up to the crowded, cluttered study, I was teleported with a single blink. The standard oppressive mana bore down on me, bringing with it the start of a headache.

As if he hadn’t moved since last I’d seen him, the archmage was rooted into his usual chair, calling out as he swiveled his neck my way.

“Ah! Miss Astorius. Good of you to drop in. List out your spell levels for me.”

Used to the demand by now, I did so without pause. As hoped, the archmage appeared pleased with the dramatic uptick in levels.

“I believe that’s the fastest surge we’ve witnessed yet! And every last one into the Initiate ranks! Laudable. It is good to see how far you were able to come in a single semester’s time frame.”

Archmage Callis at last opted to move more than just his neck, turning in his chair to face me fully. Hunched over, he clasped his hands together, fixing me with a firm gaze.

“Unfortunately, however, I wish to inform you that I will not be renewing your apprenticeship for the second semester.”