Hitting the Books

John made his way down the school’s hallway, occasionally casting Observe in the hopes that he could catch someone with powers, an endeavor that didn’t bear any fruit.

‘Guess if it was supposed to be easy, I’d get quest markers or something,’ John mused as he dismissed another Observe screen. ‘Wonder if there will ever be something like that.’

He kept walking aimlessly until his steps brought him to the pair of wooden doors that marked the entrance to the school’s library. John thought back to physics class and the skills he gained from reading the lesson packet.

‘I’ve got three reading points left,’ John thought as he stood before the doors, ‘that should be enough for me to learn from at least one book. I can spend about half of my free period seeing if I can learn anything useful, then spend the rest of my time looking around or seeing what skill I get can do.’

With his course set, John pushed open one of the doors and slipped into the library. As expected, the room was quiet and smelt of paper. The librarian, an elderly woman with a stern face sat at the main desk. A cast of Observe revealed:

Skill Level Up: Observe Lv. 4. More information is now revealed about targets.

Deciding to test what the level up did, he cast Observe on Mrs. Smith again and found this added to the readout:

John turned his attention away from the bitter old woman before she could find some fault with him and give him an earful, and made his way towards the person her Observe clued him into. Sure enough, seated at the last table was a young woman wearing the school’s standard uniform. And she was playing with a deck of cards, only instead of something like Solitaire, she was constructing a card castle.

It was an impressive structure, the base of the castle stretched across most of the wide table and was at least a meter tall and not even completed. John turned his attention from the creation to its creator.

She was intently staring at her work, her dark blue eyes focused on the card she held in her hand as she carefully moved it into position. She put it in its place, and with just as much care, drew her hand back, brushing a strand of her shoulder length black hair out of her eyes before she picked up another card to add to the growing tower.
‘How long has she been doing that?’ John thought as he slid into one of the aisles and pretended to browse the books. He took out one of them to open up a clear view of her, and while her attention was occupied, used Observe.

‘Level 10,’ John thought as he put the book back, blocking Beth from his line of sight, ‘that’s the highest I’ve seen. Is it because she’s an athlete? I don’t think I’ve Observed one yet. I was more focused on getting back at Vanessa to Observe her or Frank.’

Deciding that finding one of the school’s athletes to Observe was a risky endeavor, John elected to avoid that topic for the time being, not that he was likely to run into one for the next half hour. Instead, he moved to prowl through the bookshelves, eyes peeled for any book title that looked promising for skill acquisition.

Twenty minutes later, John slumped into one of the library’s hard wooden chairs, a pair of books hitting the matching table with a dull thud. His search had turned out to be far more pointless than he would have thought. With all the books present, John had assumed he’d find a good selection to choose his new skill from. Instead, his search had come up dry, netting only two possible choices.

He stared at the two books before him, eyes flipping between them. The first was an anatomy book which when Observed revealed:

Spend 2 Reading Points to Learn Biomancy?
Yes / No

And the seconds was an instructional art book:

Spend 2 Reading Points to Learn Craftsmanship?
Yes / No

John leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and weighed his options.

‘Not really what I was hoping for,’ John internally groused, ‘neither of them look like they’ll give me an attacking skill, which is kind of a bummer.’

He frowned as he mulled over the choice.

‘Biomancy sounds like it could give me skills to manipulate living bodies, maybe even some kind of healing power, but…’

His eyes drifted over to the art book.

‘I always liked outfitting my characters with the best gear. And the skill is called ‘Craftsmanship’, so maybe it’ll cover all the crafting skills, like Smithing and Enchanting?’

The smart choice was the skill that might let him affect others directly, or give him access to healing. But he couldn’t deny the allure of kitting himself with epic gear.

‘It’s not like I’m going to go out seeking trouble,’ John thought as he picked up the art book, ‘and I’ll just need to get my Intelligence up by five points to learn from another book. That shouldn’t be too hard to do.’

His mind made up and time in his free period running out, John Observed the art book again and clicked ‘Yes’ when prompted.

An instant after John dismissed the skill popup, another appeared before his eyes.

Achievement Unlocked: Paint Me like one of your French Girls
...or just make something useful with this. I don’t care either way.

Rewards: 1 ingot of Mana Charged Steel, 1 block of Shrouded Dark Oak, 1 Crafting Recipe(Knife).

‘Well, that was a bit tsundereish,’ John thought as he dismissed the popup and pulled up his character sheet. Sure enough, his inventory was now two items fuller. He glanced around to make sure no one was around and pulled out his two rewards.

The ingot of steel looked just how John had imagined it, a rectangular bar of dull silver, with faintly glowing blue lines running up and down it, about half a meter long and as thick as 6 dimes. John cast Observe on it.

John tapped Mana Conductive, curious as to what it meant.

Mana Conductive: This material is receptive to magic, making spells cast through it and enchantments placed on it cost 10% less.

‘That’s cool,’ John thought as he dismissed the readout, and clicked Pure.

Pure: This material is free of impurities, rendering it easy to work with.

‘Guess not everything has an effect,’ John thought with a frown. ‘Or would an impure sample of metal need more mana with Craftsmanship to make something?’

Shrugging, John slipped the bar of metal back into his inventory and looked to his other reward. It was a block of dark wood, practically black in color.

‘Now that sounds promising,’ John thought excitedly as he clicked the Attribute.

Dark Charged: This material naturally generates a small amount (15MP) of Dark Mana at a rate of 1MP/hour.

‘Definitely promising,’ John mused. It wasn’t a large amount of mana, but he could see the uses of having an extra amount to draw from.

‘Plus there might be other things with bigger mana reserves I can find later,’ John thought, pulling out the sample of metal and putting it and the wood upon the table. He checked the time; most of his free period was over and with it, he’d regenerated 15 mana, bringing him up to 57.

‘I could wait the next ten minutes and get back 5 mana,’ John thought, before a smile grew on his face, ‘or I could give Craftsmanship a test run. Whoever or whatever is writing my popups was nice enough to give me something to use it with and I’m guessing that recipe I got will show up when I give it a go.’

Unable to resist his crafting habits, John activated Craftsmanship upon the two items. They disappeared and a display popped up.

Select the item you wish to create:
Dark Gripped Steel Knife (Bar of Mana Charged Steel, Block of Shrouded Dark Oak)

John tapped the only option, which brought up another screen.

Select Crafting Method:
Instant Craft: Create selected item instantly for 30 mana.

Slow Craft: Create selected item over time. Spend 1 mana every 4 minutes for 2 hours. Total Cost 30 mana.

John stared at the display and weighed the two options. Going with the first option would immediately cut his mana in half and would take nearly an hour to regenerate. The other choice would leave him in the better position, mana wise. It did cut his regeneration in half, but that was still enough to let him recover mana while stuck in class and left him with the 56 he currently had if he needed it.

‘There’s no need for me to whip out a knife right here and now,’ John reasoned with himself as he selected the second option. The display faded away and John rose, picked up the books and headed back to the shelves. On his way, he noticed that Beth had left her table, only a single card left upon her table. A card she seemed to have glued to the table given that Ms. Smith was trying to pry it off with a look of pure fury etched into her face.

John, not wanting the irritated librarian to turn her ire towards him, quietly put the books back and slipped out of the library right as the bell signaling the end of the period sounded.