Chương 25: Extra Credit

It took two more days for Erik to finally finish his preparations, and Vin hadn't spent that time idly. With his new Capstone in hand, Vin had delved deep into the few spells he knew and tried to figure out what exactly the different runes did. He quickly learned that while Runic Recalibration gave him some innate understanding of an individual rune's purpose and allowed him to make minute adjustments to a structure after a spell had already been cast, it did not make him immune to runic backlash.

Luckily, he still hadn't tried learning any actual damaging spells, and the resulting backlash from accidentally detonating life magic inside himself tended to end with him feeling better than before the backlash occurred. By the end of his final day in the elf village, he'd nailed down not just how to raise or lower the amount of mana he put into his spells, but how to better direct them as well.

Even more exciting was the fact he'd managed to learn the spells Replenish and Entangle from an increasingly annoyed Shia, raising his Spellcraft to level 15, Meditation to level 10, and bumping himself not just to level 11, but to level 12 in the process. He'd already witnessed the usefulness of Entangle, but when Shia had shown him a spell for refilling berry bushes and the like, he'd quickly jumped at learning Replenish as well.

The moment he finally cracked the formation for Entangle and hit level 12, Vin assigned his attribute points and looked over his interface with proud accomplishment. Vinnie Stone Explorer: Lvl 12 Titles: Human Vessel (Minor) Exp.

69, 460/78, 000 Strength: 13(5) Dexterity: 14(3) Endurance: 31(2) Vigor: 15(2) Focus: 20(1) Magic: 21 Attribute Points: 0 Skill Points: 2 Passive Points: 0 Capstone: Runic Recalibration Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner Skills: Tracking lvl 4, Spellcraft lvl 15, Meditation lvl 10 Spells: Sense Stone, Sense Life, Sense Magic, Renewal, Replenish, Entangle While the thought of learning new spells had excited him enough to spend five straight levels dumping his fresh attribute points into magic, Vin had finally wised up and begun increasing his focus as well.

After spending hour after hour struggling to perfectly create a runic structure within his mana or adjust a tiny portion of a single rune with his new Capstone, he finally understood just how important a high focus was going to be for him.

"It's like watching a fish that spent its entire life out of water finally get tossed into a pond," Shia muttered just loud enough for him to hear, clicking her tongue as he dismissed his interface.

"You're nowhere near as talented as my master, but you're just good enough to be annoying."

"Sorry?" Vin half asked, half laughed.

"Maybe you're just that good of a magic instructor?"

"Hmph," Shia grunted, crossing her legs and glaring at his smile.

"Oil me up all you want, you're not getting any more spells out of me."

"What! How come? Come on, the moon is barely up, we can squeeze in one more spell!" Vin practically begged the irritated elf, contemplating whether he should get down on his hands and knees. Unfortunately, his begging didn't seem to have any effect.

"It's for your own good," she explained, shaking her head.

"Even if half of them are rather simple, in the last few days you've picked up five new spells. Sense Magic, which I still think is a stupid spell by the way, is obviously a general or pure magic spell, so nothing to worry about there. But Sense Life and Renewal both use life magic, while Replenish, and Entangle each use nature magic. Your magic attribute is still pretty low, meaning if you learn any more spells utilizing either of those alignments anytime soon, you're liable to give your mana an affinity."

"Of course, something else the System didn't bother to warn me about," Vin sighed.

"So, what's an affinity do exactly? Prevent me from casting other types of magic?"

"Not entirely, but it would certainly make it harder," Shia confirmed.

"If you hadn't already guessed, I've purposefully given my mana affinities to both life and nature magic. The good thing about having an affinity is that even if we used the same amount of mana and had the same magic attribute, spells I cast using those magics would be stronger than spells you cast with them. The bad thing is the inverse is true as well. If I were to try and cast a spell involving death magic for example, it would be weaker than if you did the same."

Vin noticed how Shia seemed to give him a strange look when she mentioned death magic, but he shrugged it off, already thinking about what this new piece of information meant. Obviously, the thought of his spells growing more powerful was enticing. But honestly, Vin didn't really care too much about power. It was the act of seeking out and discovering new magic that pushed him.

And if obtaining an affinity made it harder for him to learn certain runic formations, that meant an affinity was definitely something to avoid.

"Is it possible to get rid of an affinity?"

"Yes," Shia nodded.

"But it requires you to hold back from casting magic for months, or even years depending on how strong your affinity has already grown." She paused, tapping her chin as she thought.

"Theoretically, casting spells that use opposite affinities might speed up the process I suppose. Or spells with just general magic, like your stupid Sense Magic spell." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"It's not stupid!" Vin argued, frowning at his irate instructor.

"People with the magic attribute can already sense magic!" She replied, rolling her eyes.

"Why use a spell for something your own senses can freely tell you?"

"For one, it's an important building block for other spells," Vin pointed out.

"Besides, maybe it's more accurate?" Since learning the spell, Vin hadn't really messed around with this one in particular. After all, Shia was completely right. With his magic attribute finally at a respectable number, he could faintly sense magic being cast around him, and even determine certain aspects of it if he focused hard enough. For example, without even casting his spell he could feel the magical auras being given off by his sword and the stone in his pack.

He could even pick up the slight auras coming off the gemstone floor lamps scattered around the house. Curious to see how it differed from his own new senses, Vin cast the only one of his spells he'd truly learned all on his own." Sense Magic." Just like before, wherever he aimed his focus the faint magical auras surrounding the gemstones and his artifacts transformed into glowing beacons to his magic sense.

While he lost the ability to make out details surrounding the various magical items such as their affinities, their existence became far easier to make out. More as an excuse to flex his new Capstone than anything, Vin adjusted a few of the runes making up the spell's structure, massively expanding the range and force of the spell for just a split second before casting it a second time.

The altered spell consumed a much larger chunk of his mana than the original, but just as he'd hoped the mana rocketed out of him in a single massive pulse that covered the entire house. Heedless of any walls or physical objects in the way, anything with a magical aura that the pulse connected with lit up in his brain like a Christmas tree. Vin swayed slightly at having nearly a third of his mana used up in an instant, but he was too distracted to worry about something as mundane as that.

His spell had turned up something strange.

"Hey Shia… did you know this Divine Druid guy personally?"

"A bit," she confirmed, hesitating for the barest of moments.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no real reason," Vin said, rubbing his head as he was hit with a small mana headache.

"I was just curious if you had any idea what he kept in his magic safe."

"What are you talking about?" She frowned.

"The Druid of the Divine didn't have a magic safe. Nobody would dare take anything from him after all. Not only was he the strongest within the village, he was revered by our people, second only to the Ancient Ones themselves."

"Well then…" Vin headed over to the bedroom, sensing Shia following behind him. Once inside, he approached the mattress responsible for the greatest sleep in his entire life and carefully heaved it aside. There, hidden within the living bed frame, was a large wooden lid nearly taller than Vin himself. The lid was covered in mana filled runes, yet strangely, it was completely absent to Vin's newfound senses that came from his magic attribute.

If it hadn't been for his spell's ability to detect magic itself, he never would have noticed it.

"What in the forest…" Shia whispered, her breath catching. Running a hand delicately over the engraved lid, Vin watched the familiar sight of her tongue flicking out of her mouth. He'd grown quite used to seeing the strange way the elf detected magic over the last two days.

"The lid doesn't taste like magic at all… but there is clearly a spell at work here," she concluded.

"Some sort of spell designed to hide a magical aura so a person's innate magic sense wouldn't pick up on it would be my guess. How strange…"

"It might be designed to hide from your tongue, but not from my Sense Magic spell," Vin said, with just the right amount of smugness in his opinion. He expected to hear some snarky comeback, but Shia was too distracted, her attention focused entirely on the hidden compartment before them. Carefully, she lifted the wooden lid, and the two of them gasped as the powerful sensation of nature magic swept over them.

It felt like stepping out of an air conditioned building directly into a summer field, the sun shining down at just the right temperature and a warm breeze blowing through your hair. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Vin noticed a single tear trailing down Shia's face as she stared into the hidden compartment. Inside the hollow bed frame lay a short staff. Unlike any sort of walking stick Vin had ever seen, he knew the moment he laid eyes on it that the staff was alive.

It looked as though two small saplings had been encouraged via magic to twist around one another as they grew, until they merged together into one powerful piece of spiraling wood. At the top, where Vin would expect a magic staff to have some sort of gem or orb or something along those lines, the staff ended with a miniaturized canopy of leaves that even seemed to be flowing in a nonexistent wind. It was like a twisting tree had been miniaturized. And packed full of immensely potent nature magic.

Slowly, Shia reached in and gripped the magic staff, pulling it out of its hiding place and bringing it close to her chest. Sniffling, she wiped the tears from her eyes as her smile wavered.

"It's a present," she finally said, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the staff.

"That's why he was hiding it. He knew I'd taste the magic and ruin the surprise if he didn't."

"Okay… so why was the Divine Druid guy hiding a present for you?" Even as the words left his mouth, Vin put two and two together and smacked himself.

"Oh duh… he was your instructor, wasn't he?"

"Yes," she nodded, her eyes yet to leave the staff she held so lovingly.

"Under his instruction, I was quickly approaching my second prestige. He'd hinted that he'd have to do something special for the occasion, but he refused to elaborate when I asked him." The news that Shia had almost hit level 40 before the Great Reset rocked Vin a bit, but he said nothing. He was content to watch the elf relish one last act of kindness from her missing master. From all the times she'd spoken of the man over the past few days, she'd made it very clear how she'd felt about him.

To Vin's surprise, Shia held out the staff, giving him an encouraging smile.

"Here. You get experience from discovering objects of power, right? Seeing as you were the one who discovered it, it's only fair to let you have your due."

"Thank you," Vin said, gingerly taking the miniaturized tree in hand. The bark was somehow both smooth and rough at the same time, and he felt as though he could trek over this new world's largest mountain with the staff in hand. The moment his fingers closed around the staff, a familiar notification popped up. New Lesser Artifact Discovered! 5, 000 exp gained.

"A lesser artifact?" He muttered, turning the staff over in his hands before handing it back to the eagerly awaiting elf.

"Damn, that's some gift."

"And he would have considered that nothing," Shia giggled, bringing the staff close to her chest once more.

"My master believed relying on objects of power with too much magic packed into them was the best way to stunt one's growth. He could have easily crafted me something far more powerful than this, but this would have been his way of saying he still cared about my future."

"Wish I could have met him."

"Me too," Shia said, her eyes getting a bit more watery. Getting to her feet, she cleared her throat and turned so Vin couldn't see her face.

"Erik asked me to tell you he'd meet you at the edge of the village come morning. I'll show you to the meeting place, so just make sure you get enough rest." Having said her part, the teary-eyed elf quickly left the room, the staff still clutched to her shaking chest. Sighing, Vin rubbed the back of his head as he thought about what to do going forward. Admittedly, he'd gotten a bit distracted by the allure of learning more magic.

It had already been a full week since arriving on this new world, which meant he only had a few days left to check out the final two fragments surrounding their own and make it back to camp before wave two arrived. Spur would be royally pissed if he missed wave two after he promised he'd be there.

Deciding the best thing to do now would be to follow Shia's instructions and get some rest in preparation of leaving the Sacred Forest behind him, Vin went to reassemble the bed before pausing, his hand gripping the edge of the compartment lid used to hide the artifact's magical aura. Vin stared at the runes carved all along the compartment lid, feeling them dig into his hand as he held it. A runic structure designed to hide magical auras… that probably wasn't nature or life magic. Right?