Chapter 58
After the group returned to Cyra, the group quickly settled ounts. I simply said that the payment for the expedition would be deferred for those who were selling at least one material, and would be settled the following Monday after the city lord’s manor had time to sell and record everything. Nobody objected to this, since I was known for being fair. Shortly after, the group dispersed. Some remained chatting after the fact, but Alice decided to spend the rest of the day in her inn room. Even if the danger hadn’t been terribly high this time, spending hours walking through the wilderness being on guard for Monster attacks and knowing a fight woulde soon had been more than slightly mentally taxing. Since Alice had the rest of the day off from working on the docks, she figured a break for the afternoon was in order.
She managed to convince the [Innkeeper] to exchange her stored vinebear meat for two days of free meals. Alice grinned slightly, since that saved her a silver sun or two. Predictably but sadly, the [Innkeeper] had no use for Alice’s Vinebear bones, so he was unwilling to buy them. Alice just left themying around in her {Sample Storage}. Maybe they woulde in useful someday. Or maybe they wouldy there forgotten, for several months or years, until someday she started cleaning out her {Sample Storage}. At that time, she would probably wonder what the heck the bones were and why they were in her storage Perk… if she hadn’t gotten a fully photographic memory or something by then. Her memory was already leaps and bounds above what it had been on Earth, and Alice had no reason to believe it wouldn’t continue improving.
After dinner and a few hours spent rxing by the firece and listening to other Patrons talk, Alice returned to her room. It was time to pick her new Perk, and deal with her ss Upgrade.
<strong>Solidified Objects</strong>
<strong>Requirements: Student of Kic Magic level 25 or higher</strong>
Objects which you interact with via Kic mana be harder and more solid for a brief period of time during and after your contact with them. The amount of time each object retains these benefits is based off of the amount of mana used during interaction.
<strong>Improved Object Control (Sensory Enhancement)</strong>
<strong>Requirements: Student of Kic Magic level 25 or higher, {Object Control} Perk, Magic 100 or greater</strong>
Improves the {Object Control} Perk, expanding the range and detail at which you are able to sense objects in motion around you. You also gain improved speed at creating and manipting mana tendrils.
<strong>Short Range Mana Efficiency</strong>
<strong>Requirements: Student of Kic Magic level 25 or higher, Perception 100 or greater</strong>
You gain the ability to drastically reduce broken mana production whenever using Kic magic to manipte objects close to your body. The closer it is, the greater the reduction in broken mana production.
<strong>Greater Folds of Magic</strong>
<strong>Requirements: Student of Kic Magic level 25 or higher, {Folds of Magic}, {Divided Attention 5 or Greater}</strong>
Your ability to multitask is backed by both Perks and Skills, and grows dramatically. You gain the ability to manipte an extra Tendril of Magic, along with the mental capacity to pay attention to your improved magical capacity.
Aliceid on her bed in the inn, looking over her Perk choices. She first knocked out {Short Range Mana Efficiency} – she only lost somewhere between five and ten percent of her mana as Broken mana when she used Kic Magic. Even if Alice still didn’t have a good grasp on purifying broken mana, because things kepting up, the amount of broken mana she produced was quite minimal and had little effect on her.
{Solidified Objects} was also quickly dropped for being too situational. Most of the time, if Alice needed a harder material when she was using Kic Magic, it meant she should grab a harder material from her surroundings. Although Alice could see situations where this Perk might be useful, she just didn’t think it was worth a level 25 Perk slot. Maybe someone else would find more use in it? Either way, it wasn’t that useful for her.
That left {Greater Folds of Magic} and {Improved Object Control}. Both of which were tempting.
{Folds of Magic} had gone some way towards improving Alice’s multitasking ability. However, even with the additional bonus from {Divided Attention} and {Folds of Magic} ovepping, it had never really reached the point where Alice could manipte three mana tendrils as the same time. Sure, she was pretty close, and she would definitely reach that point whenever {Divided Attention} finally got another few levels behind it. Still, Alice often felt that this was a wasted Perk slot. Investing more heavily into it would… kind of justify that expense. However, at the same time, Alice was afraid of the sunk cost facy. She also had ess to two tendrils now, instead of one, which already meant that it was much easier for her to cope with multitasking than it had been. Besides, she already had a clear path to getting a third Tendril going, and it probably wouldn’t take more than a month or two of practice anyway.
Therefore, after some thinking, and a bit of regret, Alice set the Perk aside. While it was actually still somewhat useful, Alice felt that the final Perk was better.
Alice had never once doubted the usefulness of {Object Control}. For a level 5 Perk, it did more work than many of her level 20 Perks by letting her sense movement in her surroundings. Even if it wasn’t particrly precise or efficient,pared to the usual level 5 Perks, it was incredibly powerful, and supplemented {Projectile Awareness} and {Dodge} very nicely. Enhancing her ability to ‘see’ in 360 degrees also would eliminate one of the greatest weaknesses of Mages, which was the fact that anytime humans fought with a Mage they would immediately try to kill the Mages in a surprise attack. Monsters were about as smart as the average potato, but even they had a tendency to focus on killing and eating mages over other people if given the choice – probably because Mages had more mana inside of their bodies. Even though Alice didn’t have many ns for picking fights when she could avoid it, improving her odds of not getting murdered in a surprise attack still seemed like a fabulous idea. Allira had already rooted out most of the Sigmusi infiltration into the South, but it never hurt to be cautious. Especially since Alice would be travelling north soon, away from the protection of the [Guards] inside town.
After a few more minutes of thinking just to make sure she couldn’t find any reasons to second guess her decision, Alice grabbed {Improved Object Control}.
After picking the Perk, Alice watched the rainbow mana, waiting to see what changes happened.
The rainbow mana didn’t disappoint her. It quickly flooded towards her. Even though she was used to seeing mana swirl towards her whenever she gained Attributes or Perks, now that she could see the rainbow mana, she was also able to observe what happened <em>inside </em>her body. After the rainbow mana passed through her skin, it seemed to wander around for a while, as if feeling out all of the mana already there. Then, it rushed towards her head. Alice couldn’t see her own skull, but based on direction and angle, Alice suspected the mana was making its way towards her brain.
She didn’t have the ability to observe what happened after that, sadly. However, she quietly noted the few moments where the mana had seemed to be ‘feeling out’ what was already present.
After that, she did her best to feel out the changes from the new Perk. She picked up a pen and closed her eyes, before dropping it.
Even before upgrading her perk, she would have at least been able to tell that something was moving rtively close to her and falling towards the floor. When an object was heading towards her, as a result of I’s training, she could usually at least stop it from hitting her half of the time. However, it was still difficult and unreliable. She often slightly misjudged the location of the object, and she never knew <em>quite </em>how much force the object had, so sometimes she would apply too much or too little force to stopping the object. It worked sometimes, but it was crude and imprecise.
This was no longer a problem. Even with her eyes closed, Alice could tell the EXACT location of the falling pen. She could also get a sense of the object’s Mass and speed. Although it was nothing as precise as ‘XX number of grams 40 centimeters in front of you,’ she could at least tell that it was a fairly light object falling towards the floor at a somewhat fast pace, and she had an instinctual feel for where the object was.
This gave her an idea. Without opening her eyes, Alice tried to use a mana tendril to stop the object from falling.
Unlike before, Alice managed to perfectly catch the object. Rather than deflecting the object too hard, wasting mana, or pushing too softly against the object, slowing it down without stopping it, Alice managed to almost perfectly halt the object in midair.
And then her ability to sense the location of the object vanished, since it was no longer moving. However, Alice kept applying the same amount of mana to the pen. When she opened her eyes, directly in front of her was a floating pen.
She grinned. Precisely stopping an object she couldn’t see without wasting even a fraction of a Marium of mana – this was exactly what she was hoping for.
She could finally catch those damn beans I was fond of lobbing at her during training. And, more importantly, she could probably do the same with an arrow. As long as she wasn’t sleeping, she should now be incredibly hard to ambush. Unless the other party had Perks to make it harder to observe their arrows or something, but hey – it was certainly better to have some protection than none. As of now, people would need specific Perks to sessfully ambush her, and without them they would certainly fail. That was progress.
Grinning a little, she turned her attention back towards her Status Screen.
Next to [Student of Kic Magic], there was the word MAX written in all capital letters.
Alice had heard of ss evolutions before, but this would be the first time she would be able to see one in person.
Her grin grew wider as she pressed the little blinking ‘MAX’ icon on her Status Screen.
The ss [Student of Kic Magic] disappeared from her status screen, and for a brief moment, the sses section of her Status Screen seemed to melt into a puddle of glitch signs. Then, the status screen closed itself, and a new popup screen appeared in front of her.
<strong>ss Evolution: Student of Kic magic</strong>
<strong>Kic mage: </strong>The most traditional advancement for Students of Kic Magic. Kic Mages have a wide variety of Perk options avable, and can learn almost anything. Be it Combat, Research, or Enchanting, this ss trades away the power and precision other ss Evolutions might offer for a wide and versatile selection of Perks.
<strong>Unlocked as a result of:</strong> Having the Student of Kic magic ss at level 25
Increases Effect of [Magic] Attribute by 15%. Increases effect of [Perception] Attribute by 5%. Your Kic Magic seed will have its mana conversion efficiency improved by 10%. You will gain a moderate boost to your instinctive ability to use Kic magic, improving the speed and effectiveness with which you wield Kic magic.
Alice didn’t think particrly carefully about this option. It was neither good nor bad. It was a pretty solid backup option if nothing else caught her eye, but it also probably wouldn’t be her first choice.
<strong>Kic Catapult:</strong> trading away many of the defensive options of a traditional Kic Mage, the Kic Catapult is the option traditionally chosen by many members of armies across the world. They excel in picking up heavy objects with kic magic and then hurling it at targets in the distance repeatedly, as well as tearing down fortified structures and working with other Kic Catapults. Rmended for those who pursue long range firepower and teamwork with other Kic Mages of all varieties. Especially useful when sieging an enemy fortification, or whenever extremely long range attacks are useful. Falls somewhat short when doing other things,pared to other ss options.
<strong>Unlocked as a result of: </strong>Experience or take part in long-distance bombardment that was the result of multiple mages using Kic magic together. Have [Student of Kic Magic] at level 25
Increases the Effect of the [Magic] Attribute by 10%. [Endurance] Attribute will now have a slight effect on the [Magic] Attribute, boosting your mana reserves by a moderate amount. When attempting to work together with other [Kic Cannoneers], you will gain improved ability to bnce heavy objects together. Your [Perception] Attribute will have its effect slightly altered, boosting your ability to see things far in the distance while losing some of the boosts [Perception] normally gives to your other senses (especially smell and hearing).
<em>Huh. Well that exins a bit about how these armies coordinate their mages. I always figured there was probably some sort of Perk [Generals] or some other military leader got that helped Mages figure out how to lift up rocks and throw them together. I guess this ss does the same thing, and a lot more besides that.</em>
<em>Honestly though, it’s not really for me. If anything, trading away my closebat ability is thest thing I want to. Right now, my Kic Magic serves as my best line of defense if someone wants to hurt me. This ss trades that important function away for abilities I don’t really need. I can certainly see why the ss exists, but it’s almost entirely useless for me.</em>
<em>I am a little surprised by the fact that Allira’s illusion allowed me to qualify for this ss, though. Come to think of it, I wonder if Allira’s {Sigmusi (Language Proficiency)} ever increased as a result of using her own ability? I don’t know whether Immortal Allira’s illusion is based on her memory and understanding of what happened, or on the System’s understanding of the events that happened back then, or something else entirely. I would be pretty interested in finding out, if I ever get the chance to ask.</em>
Alice shook her head, turning her thoughts away from Allira’s Perks and abilities and back towards her ss advancement.
<strong>Kic Brawler: </strong>A ss for those who prefer getting up front and personal during fights, and then supplementing their physical abilities with Kic Magic. The Kic Brawler has a wide variety of Perks, many of which are simr to those in the [Kic Mage] ss. However, where a traditional Kic Mage has a great deal of versatility, being able to gain Perks suitable for most situations, [Kic Brawlers] tend to have significantly stronger Perks. However, most of them only work within a very certain distance. Strongly rmended to be paired with some sort of melee-oriented ss, such as [Swordsman] or [Soldier].
<strong>Unlocked by: </strong>[Student of Kic Magic] at level 25. Any melee weapon rted skill at 15 or higher. Kill at least 10 monsters or humans with a melee weapon while having used Kic Magic during the fight.
+5% Effect of [Strength], [Endurance], [Dexterity], [Magic], and [Perception]. Allbat rted sses gain 10% more experience points. Once per day, you may activate {Adrenaline}, which will increase your [Perception], [Dexterity], and [Strength] by 40% for 10 seconds. {Adrenaline} will also be automatically activated if you suffer serious injuries, if you have not already used {Adrenaline} for the day.
<em>How in the world did I ever qualify for this ss? What the heck?</em>
Alice was more than slightly baffled, before she thought back to the lonely months she had spent surviving on her own. During that time, she had, indeed, used a Spear to kill several spidercrabs. She had usually used Kic magic to hold the spidercrabs down and keep them from biting her before finishing them off with a few spear stabs.
She also had {Spearmanship} at level 19. It hadn’t really levelled up much recently, since Alice didn’t really need to use a spear anymore. However, amusingly enough, it meant that she, just barely, met the requirements for this ss advancement.
Alice immediately dismissed the ss option. She felt that this ss advancement suited her the least of all of them. To level it up, she would need to do exactly what she was trying to avoid – fight people in closebat with weapons.
<strong>Kic Manabinder:</strong> A ss for those who prefer to study the enchantments and mana involved in Kic Magic. This ss trades away some of the morebat – oriented Perks a traditional Kic Mage has to offer, and in exchange, gains several tools for improving enchantments and furthering the pursuit of schrly understanding. Even if a [Kic Manabinder] may not be the same terror on the battlefield a Kic Brawler or Kic Mage might be, they will be able to create far better enchanted tools and have a much deeper understanding of Kic Magicpared to abat-focused Kic Magic ss.
<strong>Unlocked By: </strong>[Student of Kic Magic] at level 25. Have an Achievement rted to either Enchanting or Studying Mana which is at least Rarity 7. Have a ss rted to [Enchanting]. Have a desire to explore academic topics unrted tobat but rted to mana.
+10% Effect of [Intelligence], [Magic], and [Perception]. All [Enchanting] rted sses and skills gain 25% more Experience Points. All sses and Skills rted to Research and Magic gain 10% more Experience points. The [Perception] Attribute will now begin to apply a small bonus to your ability to use mana efficiently. This will boost your ability to manipte mana inside of your body and push it out of your body quickly and effectively, speeding up the speed you can create Mana Tendrils, reducing Broken mana production, and increasing the precision with which you can manipte mana for enchanting purposes.
Alice grinned, looking at her final, and by far most suitable option for her ss evolution. There was no real contest between this one and the other three. Although this ss seemed to lean more heavily towards Enchanting instead of research, Alice already had two sses devoted to research. Having this ss be more focused on Enchanting wasn’t really a bad thing. And this ss fit her intentions for the future pretty well. If Alice ever got into an actual conflict, she was leaning more and more towards the idea that she should just survive by having a load of enchantments keeping her safe, since her actual talent and abilities were seriouslycking in this department. Furthermore, this would also seriously boost her ability to turn her mana into money, which would hopefully help shore up Alice’s funding problem.
After picking the ss, Alice grinned as she watched the rainbow mana in her surroundings surge towards her again. She opened her Status Screen again as, for the first time, Alice witnessed a ss evolution in progress.
Name: Alice Verianna
Age: 16
Strength: 103 (112%)
Perception: 119 -> 120 (155%)
Dexterity: 102 (114%)
Intelligence: 160 (128%)
Endurance: 109 (121%)
Willpower: 138 (108%)
Charisma: 126 (107%)
Magic: 123 -> 125 (117%)
Primary sses: 6/6
Survivor: 40 -> 41
Explorer of Magic: 41 -> 42
Schr: 24
Scientist: 22
<strong>Kic Manabinder: 1</strong>
(Apprentice) Enchanter: 9
Evolved sses: 1
<strong>Student of Kic Magic: 23 -> 25 (MAX)</strong>
Secondary sses: 1
Fisherwoman: 3
Perks:
Foraging (Survivor 5)
Microbe Resistance (Survivor 10)
Extremophile (Survivor 15)
Camouged (Survivor 20)
Sixth Sense (Survivor 25)
Enhanced Training (Survivor 30)
Sense Hostility (Survivor 35)
<strong>Moderate Tissue Regeneration (Survivor 40)</strong>
Magic Proficiency (Explorer of Magic 5)
Enhanced Regeneration (Explorer of Magic 10)
Combat Spellcaster (Explorer of Magic 15)
Improved Seed (Explorer of Magic 20)
Seeds of Magic (Explorer of Magic 25)
Three Seeds (Explorer of Magic 30)
Broken Seed (Explorer of Magic 35)
<strong>Infusion of Comprehension (Explorer of Magic 40)</strong>
Enhanced Memory (Schr 5)
Lesser Reduced Sleep Requirement (Schr 10)
elerated Thinking (Schr level 15 (-5))
<strong>Rhetorical Flourish (Schr level 20)</strong>
Precise mana Measurement (Scientist level 5)
Sample Collection (Scientist level 10)
<strong>Timer (Scientist level 15)</strong>
<strong>Safety Analysis (Scientist Level 20)</strong>
Object Control (Student of Kic Magic 5)
Above Average Mana Sight (Student of Kic Magic 10)
Folds of Magic (Student of Kic Magic 15)
Split Mind (Student of Kic Magic 20)
<strong>Improved Object Control (Sensory Enhancement) (Student of Kic Magic 25)</strong>
Enchanter''s Vision (Apprentice Enchanter 5)
Skills
<strong>Academic Skills:</strong>
Basic Mathematics: 122
English (Language Proficiency): 100
Illvarian (Language Proficiency): 98 -> 99
Intermediate Mathematics: 78
Advanced Mathematics: 18
<strong>Sigmusi (Language Proficiency): 0->7</strong>
<strong>Magic Skills:</strong>
Kic Maniption: 48 -> 49
Mana Control: 33 -> 34
Mana Precision: 31 -> 33
Kic Force: 29 -> 30
Projectile Awareness : 9
Divided Attention: 8
Basic Enchanting: 6
<strong>Crafting Skills:</strong>
Weaving: 27
Woodworking: 25
Cooking: 12
Stoneworking: 11
<strong>Physical Skills: </strong>
Spearmanship: 19
Sprinting: 18
Dodge: 18
Climbing: 9
Fishing: 9
Digging: 8
Stealth: 4
Basic Medicine: 3
Magic Seed: 3/4
(+1 Undetermined Seeds Max 10% Conversion Rat.)
Kic Seed (135%)
Organic Seed (10%)
<strong>Pure mana Seed (10%->50%)</strong>
Achievements:
Outworlder (Rarity: 10)
Seeker of Truth (II) (Rarity: 8)
Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)
Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)
Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)
Monster yer (II) (Rarity: 1)
Well Trained (Rarity: 4)
Murderer (Rarity: 4)
Bookworm (Rarity: 3)
Kic Manabinder (Rarity N/A)
At the same time, the mana inside of Alice’s body began to dance. The fractals inside of her body began to shift, swirling round and round. Rainbow mana once again probed the mana inside of her body, feeling out the structures and fractals already in ce. Then, Alice saw some mana from her surroundings, especially the rainbow mana, slowly flow towards her body, before coalescing inside of her mana core. However, since she had a much better view of what was happening this time, Alice noticed that the Rainbow mana wasn’t actually fusing with her body, or any of the mana already inside of her.
Instead, it seemed to be acting more like a filter. More ordinary mana rushed in from her surroundings, before touching the rainbow mana. There, the mana seemed to change in a way Alice couldn’t quite put her finger on. The color and shape remained the same, however, instead of being ‘mana from her surroundings,’ it suddenly seemedpatible with her. Alice couldn’t put it into better words than that, because she didn’t quite understand what was happening. However, that was the distinct impression she got as she watched.
The little ball of grey-white light inside of her magic core suddenly began to grow brighter and brighter for a few moments, before it started to dim again. However, Alice could see that the Kic magic-colored light ball was more structured than before. Even though it was still just a lump of colored mana, there were certain lines and patterns to it that Alice could see. However, these lines and patterns didn’t seem to be linked to the entirety of the mana seed – instead, it looked more like a second, half-formed mana seed made of fractals had been added on to the original mana seed.
After a few moments, the rainbow mana dispersed. The mana, which had passed through the rainbow mana fractals and changed somehow, remained inside of her body, forming what Alice assumed to be her new ss and the benefits that came with it. The rainbow mana, however, returned to the hodgepodge of rainbow mana in her surroundings, no longer interacting with her at all. With a bit of curiosity, Alice extended a mana tendril out towards the rainbow mana that had just acted as a filter moments ago. However, once again, it was now avoiding her mana.
A few momentster, the light from the ball of mana inside of her magic core settled down, and the fractals started to slowly merge with her Kic Magic seed. Within just a few minutes, it looked perfectly natural, as if it had been there all along.
<em>Hmm. Interesting</em>, thought Alice, as she observed the mana in the room settle down once more.