Chương 6: 1-5 Choices and plans

Leveling up was not what Josef expected it to be. The usual expectation would have been another system screen. Blue, rectangular and stuffed with numbers. Instead, he got… this. The very moment he committed to his level up, Josef found himself in the middle of a desert. Sand stretched to the horizon as far as his eyes could see. Which meant that he was no longer inside Highsend, eating breakfast inside Zassa's tavern. Could he not go a single day without suffering from spontaneous relocation?

Pushing down the momentary panic, he decided to go about things calmly. Which meant addressing the elephant in the room. Or rather, the dragon in the desert. The only thing not small, coarse, and rough in this place. With four legs, two wings and a pair of horns, it looked every which way he expected a dragon to look. Fortunately, though that depends on the viewpoint, this was not a live dragon, but a statue. Seated on its haunches, its shoulders were a good 20 meters off the ground.

One paw raised up, as if it were presenting something. And seated on top, nestled between those horns, was Dusty. Something about that sight had tickled his memory. Josef felt like he knew it… or her. Now that he was thinking about it, he was sure they had met before. It was when he got his heartstone. Of course, it wasn't just lying around, ready for the taking. He had gotten it from a statue like this. No, not a statue. Lapis. This was Lapis, the dragoness who had left her heartstone for him.

It became very clear to Josef that something had been inhibiting his memories ever since he stepped from his first point of arrival into the wider world of Aurum. And even now there was more he was missing. Was it done on purpose or by accident? By a friend or a foe? Did he allow it, or was he forced? No matter how much he mulled over these questions, he didn't have an answer. But looking at the massive monument of stone in front of him, he knew this was what he needed to fix.

Mana poisoning no longer looked so bad, all things considered. He also doubted healing spells alone would fix this issue, or she would not have needed his special affinity. Especially taking into account that he got his healing magic from her in the first place. If that was enough on its own, she would have done it herself. Stepping up to Lapis, he saw what she was presenting in her claw. His choices. ☆☆ Emergency Heal (Moderate) In times of despair your light will shine brightest.

Upon receiving a debilitating or fatal injury, your mana will immediately be converted into a restorative effect, increasing health at 2x the effectiveness. This effect can only trigger once per day. ☆ Fluid Movement (Moderate) The grace of water fills your every move. Increases your dexterity by 10% of your intelligence score, rounded up, and marginally amplifies the casting speed of water spells. Improves movement in water. ☆ Summoner's Supervision (Advanced) Trust but verify.

You are able to take over the sight of one of your familiars, seeing through their eyes as if they were your own. Connection limit: 50 Meters One skill for each affinity the heartstone gave to him. He doubted that was a coincidence. Now what to choose. Surprisingly enough, he didn't find the choice as difficult as he first expected. Emergency Heal was immediately out. On paper, for some game character you played? It would have been decent, especially for a frontline fighter.

But he had summons and intended to stay as far away from harm as possible. There was also never a guarantee that he had enough mana left to survive the triggering injury. Finally, he didn't want to consider how he would level this. Was he supposed to just stab himself once a day, hoping it got better? That, in turn, would mean it wouldn't be ready to trigger when he needed it. Summoner's Supervision got a few seconds of consideration before being declined.

That skill would probably not mesh well with his only current familiar. After all, Dusty only appeared to display his weird movement capacities if others weren't aware of him. Connecting to him would probably cause issues with that. Outside of that, he moved about as well as a regular rabbit does. Not exactly spy material. He also didn't like the idea that his own body would be blind in the meantime. Fluid Movement was the only option left for him, and he liked it.

Never would he underestimate the value of a percentage based improvement. Those always paid dividends. Perhaps even more important was that this would allow him to lean more heavily on intelligence, without ruining his dexterity. Making himself rely on the least stats possible was always a good move. The improved water movement and spell-casting were merely nice to have compared that. Maybe he was missing something, but to him, the choice was clear. Josef selected Fluid Movement.

After he had made his choice, a refreshingly cool wave of water streamed around him. This water did not truly make him wet. Instead, it wrapped around him and subtly poked and prodded him. It pushed to adjust his posture, nudging here and there until it was satisfied so. With its work done, the water disappeared into a fine mist, but the guiding pressure remained. The sensation was foreign and strange, but not unpleasant. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Josef took a couple of steps, followed by a quick sprint to test the change to his movement. It was clearly not much, not yet, but he could feel how the pressure helped optimize his own movement in subtle ways. Like having a magical sports coach trying to correct your every wrong move. Hopefully, he could turn that effect off because he didn't fancy sleeping with that feeling of pressure. With that done, he turned his attention to the next screen to appear in Lapis's claw. Name Josef Trach Level 5 Class L. A. P. I.

S. Type <Summoner> v0. 9b Body ☆☆ Humanoid (Advanced) Heart ☆☆ Manaheart (Advanced) Health 32/32 Mana 49/49 Strength - 4 + Intelligence - 7 + Dexterity - 4 + Wisdom - 6 + Endurance - 4 + Charisma - 6 + Free Points 4 The first thing to catch his eye was the already increased attributes. He hadn't just imagined things on the level up notification. There was an automatic component to it. Was it based on his own actions before the level up? His Endurance, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma had all increased by one.

Josef had dedicated himself to a lot of magic related thinking and practice. He also went out of his social comfort zone and sprinted quite a way through some alleys. That checked out as far as he was concerned. He also had a lot of questions about how exactly this whole stat system worked, but understood that he wouldn't be able to get answers to that yet. Either he would have to find some external information, like a book on the matter, or he needed a higher sample size for his own theories.

Endurance did most likely increase the maximum health he had, seeing as the value of that had increased somewhat. Either Intelligence or Wisdom probably influenced his mana, though he wasn't sure which, as both had increased. Would those two also affect something like mana regeneration, or his defenses against magic? As for Charisma, he had no idea what that was doing for him. He couldn't just magically become more suave, could he? Josef definitely needed a guide.

Highsend had to have some kind of library, surely he could find some basic info somewhere. He also noticed one discrepancy with the attribute window in front of him. Bringing up his own status sheet for comparison, he noted that his actual Dexterity was one point higher, as it should be. Meaning this window would only show his base attributes, without including any increases from his skill. That left only the matter of assigning his free points. What did he need most? Should he specialize or spread?

Strength was interesting, not because he saw a current use for it, but because the idea of turning muscular through magic was enticing. No sweaty workout and sore muscles, getting swole at the press of a button. Unfortunately, he just couldn't bring himself to waste limited points on cosmetics. Yet. Dexterity wasn't interesting to him for the moment.

He had just taken a skill that would help improve it passively as he pushed his Intelligence, so any interest he would have had in that stat would go towards the other. Maybe he would eventually see a need for more of it than that would provide, but that wasn't the case for now. Endurance was suffering from a similar issue to strength. Skipping sweaty cardio exercises and reaching peak athlete endurance without even leaving the house was appealing to him. But was that worth his points?

It had also increased his health, which was an argument in its favor. Though he could still substitute mana for health using healing spells, he did want to have a healthy buffer. Intelligence was his immediate favorite. It was already his highest stat when he came to this world, and he had every desire to keep it that way. In some way it also connected with magic, and Dexterity was now riding on its back. In fact, maybe he should just go all in on Intelligence this time around.

If Fluid Movement was rounding up, then reaching 11 would get him an extra point of Dexterity as well. Giving it a tentative try, he found out that he couldn't spend more than two points on one attribute at once. Fortunately, that assignment didn't stick, he could just reassign them until he finished assigning all of them. A quick test with Endurance also confirmed his newfound suspicion that these floating values wouldn't cause any difference in his status until fully assigned.

He would have loved to test whether Intelligence or Wisdom increased mana. That thought brought him to Wisdom. It definitely had something to do with magic. Josef liked magic, so he also liked wisdom. Maybe it was also going to make him smarter, though that might be the field of Intelligence. He was wondering how that whole mental growth thing was going to work. Wisdom was also a tentative yes. That left Charisma.

Cheating his way out of social awkwardness via attribute points was less interesting of an option than he first assumed. He just didn't have the desire to be a social butterfly to begin with. Unlike the other changes he expected from stat increases, the thought of his very personality somehow being shifted was downright unsettling to him. Logic dictated that it couldn't be such a straightforward, invasive thing, but until he knew more about the long term effects, he wouldn't specifically push this one.

He had his picks and didn't need to think much about how to distribute his points. 2 Intelligence, 1 Wisdom and 1 Endurance gained. With his level up done, he felt it before he saw it. The surrounding realm was dissolving. Wind was picking up, forming a veritable sandstorm that cut visibility with every passing moment. The statuesque dragoness pulled an imitation of Dusty and disappeared the very first moment he lost sight of her.

More than just general visibility, he could tell the horizon itself was now disappearing on him. All collapsed into itself. Into himself. The desert was no more. In its place was the dining room he had been in before. There was nothing amiss, and no one reacted to his return. As if he had never been gone in the first place. That was the weirdest level up menu Josef had ever seen. But he gained more than just a new skill from it. What he found was some understanding of the path he had in front of him.

He might have lacked most of the how and why of the matter, but he understood his way forward now. Pushing his level as far as he could. Josef felt, no, he knew, that to learn more about the truth and the fate of dragons, he needed to return to that place as often as possible. And something told him that not any old level would do that. Ultimately, he was only there because he had a choice to make. He doubted that those would happen at every level. Was it a milestone at every 5th level?

Would the gap between choices increase? He was going to find out. With renewed vigor he scarfed down his meal. The level up had refilled his mana completely, so he would make use of it immediately. He moved over to sit next to Cana, gaining permission for his next attempt. Mana poisoning wouldn't stump him anymore. His plans were bigger than that.