Reaping the Rewards

Quest Complete - Focused Training
Defeated 30 enemies with Evocations and 30 enemies with spirit related skills.
Barrier automatically set to peaceful.
Rewards:
Skill Level Up: Evocation Lv. 8
Skill Level Up: Spirit Link Lv. 6
+100 max Mana

John waited a moment, expecting to see a report of experience, a pile of loot or any other notification pop up while everyone gathered at the center of the battlefield.

Alright, fine. I was waiting for everyone to be in place, but if you’re going to be impatient…

Level Up!
5 Stat Points gained.

Skill Level Up: Thaumaturgy Lv. 8
Skill Level Up: Evocation Lv. 9
Skill Level Up: Spirit Link Lv. 7
Skill Level Up: Hex Lv. 4
Skill Level Up: Small Blade Proficiency Lv. 4
Skill Level Up: Large Blade Proficiency Lv. 7
Minor Wind Spirit Rank Up: Rank 4 reached

John nearly jumped when his vision was overtaken by the number of popups, the sudden restoration of his mana and a large canvas sack dropping at his feet with a clatter.

“Now that’s a lot of screens.” Beth smirked.

“Not sure if flex-seal’s going to help get through them,” John said as his eyes swept over the info. “Nor could it help me figure out if I got the experience level ups for Evocation and Spirit Link first, then the quest ones, or the other way around.”

“I’m putting my money on Gaia just letting it all pile up and giving you the summed up version,” Aeolia remarked.

“That sounds like her,” John sighed before shaking his head. “Whatever. Not going to look a level up and a bunch of skill ups in the mouth.”

“They don’t have mouths,” Anita interjected with a frown before her expression lit up. “Is that a saying I don’t know?”

“A bit of a mangling of one,” Vivian clarified. “It’s ‘look a gift horse in the mouth’ and it’s about not being too critical of a gift or good turn of fortune.”

“But why a horse and why their mouth?” Antia asked, her head tilted to one side.

“A horse’s age and health can be ascertained by checking their teeth,” Lynn answered. “Checking one given as a gift is insinuating the gift giver isn’t trusted enough.”

“Sayings are weird,” Anita remarked.

“English is weird.” John chuckled. “Now, do we want to go over the loot and my upgrades here or head home?”

“I could do with a comfy seat,” Beth said.

“Don’t think we’re going to do any more barriers today,” Senka added before turning her attention to Lynn. “Even if you could make more mana potions, it would be unwise to keep chugging them, right?”

“We’re on the line,” Lynn answered. “A few more each likely wouldn’t lead to issues, but it’d be a risk. Best to let our mana recover naturally.”

“I think we could at least pause for something to eat after reviewing things then reassess from there,” Vivian said.

John hefted the bag of loot and slung it over his shoulder. “Then, shall we adjourn to the living room?”

John set the bag on the floor before the couch and plopped down on the comfortable bit of well loved furniture. As everyone settled into relaxed positions, he reached down and opened the sack. Almost immediately, the numerous stacks of money vanished, their value ticking up the fund counter on his character sheet by thousands.

“Looks like we hit mostly the money drops,” John reported, looking down into the now much emptier bag. “But we got a good number of the two actual things.”

John pulled out two separate items. The first was a grey ceramic bottle about the size of a coke bottle that slightly vibrated in his hand. It was bulbous with a round neck and was sealed with a thick cap of black wax. The second was a rather simple length of cloth, though as John held it up, it seemed to flutter in a breeze none of them could feel.

“Let’s go by rarity,” John said, putting down the cloth and hitting the bottle with Observe.

Storm Bottle
Uncommon
A ceramic bottle sealed with wax. Wind mana agitated by a storm has been trapped inside, undergoing a conversion into a potent enchantment. Upon breaking, the freed magic will attach to the nearest living thing with mana, conferring the speed of the wind to them.
Attributes: Arcane Conversion, Clinging Essence

Arcane Conversion: The magic woven into this container automatically converts stored mana into a prepared spell.

Clinging Essence: The magic within this container will seek out the nearest appropriate target when released, conveying a 15% increase to their Agility for 120 seconds.

“A flat fifteen percent?” Vivian asked. When John nodded, the redhead’s expression grew more thoughtful. “That could be very useful. A boost not tied to one of your stats, that can be prepped and triggered when needed is quite the tool.”

“Think we can replicate this?” John asked, leaning over to hand the bottle to Vivian, who turned it over in her hands. “We have another five.”

“I want to have Estelle look at it too, but maybe,” Vivian answered. “I don’t see any clear runic markings on the outside, which actually might be important. The magic is all involved internally, so all the scripts may be there, to better thematically align with the desired effect.”

“Sounds like a good theory to me,” Lynn spoke up. “There are some potions that need specially enchanted materials to ‘cure’ in, and those usually have any arrays or symbols on the inside.”

“Sounds like we’ll need to crack one open,” Beth said, a grin forming on her face. “And since that’ll mean someone’ll get the boost, I volunteer.”

“Let’s hold off on that until Estelle can give it a once over,” John cautioned. “We have no idea where any runes or arrays are on the inside. We could break it in a way that makes trying to recreate the magic impossible.”

“I would think if there are any internal arrays, Estelle could map them out from the outside,” Vivian added. “I’d rather keep as many in working order than just break them apart and hope we can piece their mechanisms from the scraps.”

“Can I still be the first person to test them, whatever way we do it?” Beth asked.

“Yes,” Vivian sighed.

Beth pumped her fist in victory. “Fuck yeah!”

“If the speed theme carries through, you might want one of these too,” John said, picking up the strip of linen. He hadn’t noticed them before, but with Vivian’s talk of arrays and runes, he was more critical of the item, and he saw a string of characters stitched along the edge of the cloth. “At least these have the magic writing plain to see if we want to try our hand at replicating it.”

Footwraps of Speed
Rare
A piece of simple cloth with a not so simple arcane script stitched around its perimeter. Worked on only during times of high wind, the meticulous craft has weaved the wind into every fiber, its power only released when worn, often on the feet but in no way limited to such placement.
Attributes: Fleet, Flexible Placement, Self-Binding
Evocation: Storm Cloak [10/10]

Fleet: +15% Agility. +20% if worn around footwear, +25% if worn on bare feet.

Flexible Placement: This item can be placed on an object or any part of the body.

Self-Binding: This item will tighten itself to secure its placement.

Evocation: Storm Cloak: Call upon the winds of the storm and wear them to both bolster your speed and to have the squall as a shield. For every instance of cost, increase Agility by 10%. Cost: Multiples of 10MP. Duration: (Wis x 2)+(Cost/10) seconds.

“Well, that’s a bit vague,” John said as he reviewed the Evocation. “The ramping up of Agility and duration is nice, but the whole ‘squall as a shield’ bit is undefined.”

“I’m guessing the wind will act as a repelling barrier to others, ” Vivian mused.

“I suppose,” John said. “Even if that’s not the case, this sounds like this’ll be a good option to hold on to. If I’m reading it right, I could wrap one of these around the grip of my sword and get the small agility bonus and access to the Evocation without much fuss.”

“Why not go for the full bonus?” Beth asked.

“Did you miss the ‘bare feet’ part?” Aeolia asked. “Don’t think we’re at the level where running around like some monk’s a smart idea.”

“Okay, first, fair, forgot about that little part,” Beth admitted. “Dos, he can still have it on his shoes for a better boost.”

“True,” John said. “That is the best option, but sometimes aesthetics beats the raw numbers. Something about having a small streamer coming off the sword just appeals to me.”

“Of course it does,” Senka said fondly.

“How about something like this?” Anita suddenly interjected, holding up Beth’s phone, which she had borrowed at some point. “I saw a game in your room and thought it looked cool so I went looking up stuff about it. They’ve got bits of cloth like that on their armor."

What she was showing them was a picture of a Space Marine. John recalled he had the game from a few years back on his shelf. What Anita was referring to was the bits of parchment affixed to the marine’s blue armor with red wax seals.

“We could stick some to your jacket,” Anita proposed excitedly, her arms beginning to wave around. “Then you get a big boost from the, what did you call that kind of thing? Static bonus! That’s the words! And you can cycle through them so you don’t run out of charges. Or use them at the same time for a bigger super boost!”

“You know, we’ve never tried to see if Evocations from multiple copies of the same item could be used at the same time,” Vivian remarked, her face drawn into a thoughtful expression.

“Never really had the mana to test things like that,” John pointed out with a grin. “But that’s not such a big problem anymore. I think we can do some experimentation. I know there are Evocation combos I can pull off so it stands to reason that something should happen if I cast the same one from several sources at once. Won’t know until we give it a try later.”

“I’d recommend tomorrow,” Lynn spoke up. “I know you got that level up refresh, but the rest of us are pretty drained. Letting our mana regenerate through a good rest is the best way to do it.”

“We’re at least taking a lunch break,” Beth interjected with a grin. “Really craving one of Mason’s cheesesteaks.”

“I think calling it a day, at least in regards to fighting and any strenuous magic, would be in our best interest,” Vivian put forth her opinion. “It’s more than just the mana thing; letting our bodies recover after all that running around would be for the best. No point in burning ourselves out for an event we don’t even have a date for, if it’s even going to happen.”

“I think we’ve got pretty good odds for something happening,” Senka said. “Not sure if it’ll make our proposal a done deal, but it doesn’t hurt their position to have us undergo their trial. If nothing else, they’ll get some entertainment out of it.”

“I hate how likely that is,” Vivian sighed.

“At least it’s good training, right?” Anita asked.

“That’s the bright side,” John said. “We’d be doing this anyway, especially with the Order ramping up their efforts to track Phantom Reach.”

“I really don’t think they want you to be involved,” Lynn interjected, and John could imagine she was holding out hope that the Order would attract all the attention of their enemies and leave them, mainly Beth, safe. He didn’t think that was an option for the other things moving in the background.

“We might not have that option,” Vivian said what John was thinking. “We’re connected to the Kingdom they’re trying to reach, and they likely know it on some level. We can’t just hide behind the Order’s aegis forever. They, or someone else, will eventually come calling.”

Lynn looked at Vivian for a long moment before she sighed. “I hate that I can’t fault your logic.”

“It’s not like you’re someone uninvolved, Sis,” Beth remarked. “If they track down Harker…,”

“I know,” Lynn cut Beth off, her voice sharp before she sighed again. “I know. Hell, one of these groups could already have our number. I don’t like it, but I’m not blind to it, even if I want to just hide from all of it.”

“We can’t change what’s happened,” John said. “All we can do is keep moving forward as best we can. Whether that means getting stronger or gathering allies, we can’t just sit back and let the world move around us.”

“Think you need to be a bit more hyper if you’re going to start leveling a ‘Motivational Speaker’ skill,” Lynn quipped, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

“I’d need to up my Charisma a bit more for that to be a worthwhile skill.” John chuckled. “Speaking off, got five points to spend. Do I go all in with Intelligence to boost my mana another twenty-five points, or put them elsewhere?”

“What’s your mana at?” Aeolia asked.

“With the hundred point reward, Thaumaturgy’s boost going to thirty-five and the ten percent boost from the Tree-Sage’s Ring, two fifty eight,” John answered, after checking Thaumaturgy’s recent update. “There’s a part of me that wants to dump everything into Intelligence to get it to fifty, see if that does anything, but I’m not sure if that’ll happen since I have a plus one from an achievement throwing off the math.”

“I think, with this big jump, you can afford to put points into your physical stats,” Vivian advised, a finger on her chin. “Even if you dump all five, that will only give, what, ten points to your mana?”

“Assuming there is no reward for getting a stat to fifty, yeah.” John nodded, his tone pensive. “And there still is that doubt about the plus one. Maybe drop one in each physical, one in Int and the last in Wisdom to keep my regeneration growing.”

“Doesn’t sound like a bad plan, but you're the game guy,” Aeolia remarked.

“Working towards that fifty at a measured pace is probably a better bet than dumping everything in Intelligence right now,” John worked out his logic. “This lets me get a little bit of everything and if I want to go all in next time, the five there will get to a natural fifty.”

Decision made, John punched in the changes a grin making its way across his face.

“Who knows, maybe I’ll get another level up before the trial. It’s only ninety-seven hundred experience."

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.