Mentored Training 6

We get through the dungeon quickly, picking up the loot at the end and levelling up to level 64. Excitedly, I open my character sheet and spend two of my six statpoints on agility, finally creeping over the milestone. A window opens when I do, informing me of the bonus I receive.

Huh, that’s a bit vague, but still really cool nonetheless. “Wait, I wonder if that means…” I say, thinking out loud. I tap the button to unequip my armour and switch back to my regular clothes. I reach down find that I can touch my toes much easier than before, which is a nice surprise.

I place both my hands flat on the ground and jump off the ground, pushing my weight onto my hands. To my surprise, my body lifts off the ground into a perfect handstand. Like the window said, my balance is incredible, even in a handstand. I move my legs experimentally, trying to unbalance myself to test my own limits.

Once again, to my surprise, even with rapid and sudden movements, I hold the handstand easily. I walk forward on my hands and giggle happily when I find that I can easily manage that too. “This is cool!” I exclaim. I kick my legs and spring off my hands, back onto my feet, landing perfectly. “The perks of being The Gamer.” I giggle and Ivy smiles fondly at me, enjoying my elation at my new capabilities.

I spend Ivy’s statpoints on wisdom before turning back to my own character sheet for my remaining four points. What should I spend them on? I pretty quickly arrive at the conclusion that the best thing to spend my points on at the moment is intellect. Raising intellect helps by increasing my actual intellect for one thing, which is obvious in the name itself.

In addition, it raises my maximum mana, which is always a good thing. Thanks to the stat synergy bonus I got from getting both intellect and wisdom to 100, where I regenerate 3% of my maximum mana per minute, raising my intellect also raises my mana regeneration. Although only by half of what raising wisdom does, but that’s still pretty significant all things considered, especially with how many points I’ll be investing into intellect.

And even after all of that, raising my intellect also raises my effective health pool due to the mana shield skill. Having that maxed out is an amazing boon, and further increasing the hits that I can take with the skill is an enticing option. It will also help if I want to be aggressive in my general battle strategy, since I can dedicate more mana to offensive spells.

That being decided, I put my remaining four points into intellect, and exit the dungeon to recover mana. We watch Paige and Skylar spar for a while as we take our break. Olivia proudly praises the goth girl for how much effort she’s putting in. “She is going brilliantly. If she keeps up this level of resolve, she will have her breakthrough today.” Our teacher says. “Keep it up Paige!” I cheer, and I see her smile briefly before continuing to concentrate.

Ivy and I go back to grinding after our mana is regenerated. We manage to do two more dungeons, netting ourselves a nice bit of loot, money and most of the XP towards the next level, before Olivia lets us know that Paige is nearing her breakthrough point. We abandon our plans to get to the next level today and stay to watch.

It doesn’t take too long for it to happen either. Paige sways on her feet unsteadily, catching herself before she falls. She shakes her head, takes a deep breath, and looks towards Skylar. I see the change in her posture, and Skylar notices it too. Skylar sends a massive fist of shadows at our gothic girlfriend.

Paige gathers up earth from the ground, faster than we’ve ever seen her do before, the sheer mass of it also more than we’ve also seen from her before. Breathing deeply, steadily, in that instant looking more alert than when she started, she shunts the shadow magic aside with a massive of earth, flinging the condensed dirt at Skylar.

The umbramancer focuses on the earth coming towards her, and in the process, misses Paige charging towards her, gathering speed as she does so. She isn’t very fast, but she doesn’t have to be with Skylar’s attention drawn away from her. Earth condenses around her fist and as Skylar blasts apart the mass of dirt from earlier, Paige lets loose a simple, straight, powerful punch.

The punch connects and Skylar folds around the fist, letting out an audible “Oof!” Paige follows it up with an uppercut, sending Skylar reeling back meters off the ground, landing in the snow, surprised and pleased with our girlfriend. Paige turns to us, smiling. “W…was that…it?” She asks, panting heavily.

Olivia smiles. “It seems so. You would not have been able to leave such an impact on Skylar before.” She says, and Paige laughs weakly. “Yay…I think…I need…to rest now…” She says, slumping to the ground tiredly. As yesterday, we’re at her side immediately, picking her up and carrying her inside.

We lay her down in bed, and I kiss her on the forehead. “I’m so proud of you.” I whisper to her, not knowing or caring if she can hear me. Paige’s breakthrough wasn’t as spectacular as Skylar’s, but it was still a breakthrough, and we’re all proud of her for that. I go back downstairs to relax with the rest of my guild while Paige recovers.

We spend some time hanging out with Olivia and relaxing. Nothing eventful or interesting, but we have fun nonetheless. As nightfall draws near, our teacher gets ready to go home. Just before she heads out the door, Paige emerges downstairs and greets us all.

“Ah good to see you dear, are you feeling better now?” Olivia asks. Paige nods, smiling. “Can you observe me Gemma? I wanna see how much more powerful I am.” She says. “Are you okay?” I ask first. “Yeah I’m fine.” She says, giggling happily at my care for her. I smile at her, and use the spell.

“Level 57, pretty good!” I report and Paige giggles happily. Olivia nods, satisfied with the result. “I am proud of you.” She says, smiling at the terramancer. Paige beams back, clearly proud of herself too. I scan her stats for anything interesting and raise an eyebrow when I see her strength.

“Congratulations Paige, you now have the highest strength stat out of everyone here.” I tell her. Her eyes widen and she looks at her character sheet to confirm my words. “No way! That’s really cool!” She says. “No fair!” Mia calls out and we all chuckle.

“I bid you all farewell and goodnight. I shall see you all tomorrow, bright and early. I will help you figure out the full extent of your abilities.” Olivia says. “Wait, before you go!” Paige says, her usual embarrassment forgotten for the moment. She runs over to Olivia and throws her arms around our teacher. “Thank you thank you thank you so much!” Paige says. The lady of the beasts chuckles and hugs her back. “You’re welcome dear.” She says.