It turns out my mix of abilities were relatively middling. Nothing overly exciting and while handy I wasn’t going to be going God mode anytime soon. I wasn't being handed anything on a silver platter and hyperfocus on its own would have been a huge advantage of Jack of all Traits master of none was only really going to be helpful for potentially acquiring new traits. The slower experience gain was going to bite me - especially since I learned that skill levels weren’t capped - although the general payoff tended to fall off past 100.
Bale explained that given my System had adapted to my interest in magical medieval fantasy settings I would likely need to get some experience with combat to keep myself alive. It was likely the System would be generating threats for me to help me level my skills which wouldn’t be great if I didn’t learn how to defend myself.
A series of different ‘training’ areas appeared in small wooden fenced off areas. Each seemed to be focusing on a specific skill uniquely aimed at combat and a specific skill set. I went through each and those that I seemed to show more aptitude or interest in stayed. Others like the knife throwing area with a target disappeared soon after I dropped a throwing dagger on my foot before even getting to throw it.
The area I was drawn to most was a wooden lectern with a large leather-bound tome on it. If I knew my classic fantasy RPGs this was a magic book. I opened the book, and it was full of magical runes, alchemical recipes and writings of an arcane nature. I couldn’t read any of it. Picking it up I was filled with an understanding of how to use the book instinctively - but only the first page.
- Skill unlocked - basic magic tome proficiency - Level 1. You can now cast minor mana blast and minor shield on yourself with a magic tome equipped. Level this skill to unlock further abilities.
This was the only weapon-based item so far that had unlocked a skill - Bale said it was probably because it was the one I showed the most interest in. It had potentially triggered my Jack of all traits and hyperfocus because while I’d been looking at other training booths this was the one I was really focused on.
About an hour passed with me throwing mana blasts at targets. I could only fire about two or three before becoming physically exhausted and needing to rest for a few minutes. I regained energy and healed at an increased rate in this dimensional safe space, and this was improved further during tutorial week. This essentially proved to me that I was not likely to survive with magic as my only defence. Although within those hours I did gain some skill levels.
- Skill improved - basic magic tome proficiency - Level 2.
- Skill unlocked - minor mana blast proficiency - Level 1. You can now cast this spell without an equipped magic tome at double its mana cost. Improve this level to lower the mana cost.
The ability to cast minor mana blast without the book was helpful but at double the mana cost I could feel I would only be able to cast the spell once before needing to rest. Bale explained that using the spell without the book would help it level faster and doing so would eventually mean I could cast the spell at a lower mana cost than the base cost with the book equipped. This meant eventually you could essentially cast the spell for free and with a tome equipped I could empower the spell improving aspects such as range, power, and lowering casting time.
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“Looks like your natural mana pool is pretty low Kid, that’s a shame since you seem pretty natural at using the mana.” Bale said.
“What does that mean?” I replied really wishing the System would give me a break since I currently seemed to be at a disadvantage with everything. Unlike most scenarios in the shows I’d watched and games I’d played, it didn’t seem like there was a glaringly obvious oversight no one else had thought of to try to make my seemingly crappy powers massively overpowered. At least not at this point in time.
“Everyone has a natural mana pool - this is then affected by general stat improvements, skill levels, equipment and various other factors. But if you’re born with a naturally low pool of mana doubling that is still going to be lower than a guy born with a naturally huge pool of mana. It’s probably because you don’t have magic in your world naturally with the system shut off. But I would imagine you’ve probably got higher mana than the average Shifty from your realm.”
Again, I was a bit deflated as the vision of myself as an all-powerful archmage manipulating the elements to my whim quickly burned to ash. “What should I do?” I asked.
“You could try and find ways to bump your mana pool artificially I suppose. But I would probably focus on an alternative form of survival for now. Maybe focus on magic as a backup?”
I opened my stats page to see my starting scores in my main ‘characteristics’. Bale had shown me how to access them earlier but apparently for my first day of the tutorial it wasn’t worth worrying about them too much as traits and skill levels tended to have more impact early on.
- Strength - 2
- Dexterity - 3
- Charisma - 5
- Intelligence - 6
- Endurance - 4
On average when a person entered this world, the scores were generated based on how they’d lived prior to Shifting here. Those born here were just born with their starting stats - usually with 5s across the board and the stats changed as they aged with maybe a few bonus points here and there. Basically, I had a lower starting score in almost every stat than a newborn baby.
My charisma was straight average which I was pleasantly surprised with. Bale said it was probably the constant strain of my social anxiety in the past meaning any socialising I did was twice as difficult and the System was acknowledging that. The low strength and dexterity were expected - I wasn’t a sporty person, and I spent a lot of my free time inside preferring to stay in than go out with friends. Mostly because my friends were also not the going out type.
My intelligence was slightly higher than average which meant that my meagre mana pool was already receiving a slight bump. The endurance being 4 was likely from the beatings I took in high school as well as what Bale described as ‘Mental Fortitude’ which was also affected by the Endurance stat. Basically being bullied as a kid made up for the lack of physical exercise I did in my free time.
“Bale - what can I do with a slightly higher than average intelligence score that will help me improve my mana pool enough artificially to keep me alive if I need to fight.” I asked.
“Intelligence is pretty useful for a few things - and pretty much helps with any trait or skill really. It’ll help with working out things like proficiencies or tactics-based skills. Keeping your mana topped up and artificially increasing it will probably be easiest with equipment improving your mana regen but since you won’t have anything like that yet, spamming potions is probably your best bet.” He replied.
In response to that the booth next to me holding a set of heavy armour dematerialised and was replaced with a generic looking alchemy station. There were random pieces of parchment with scribbles on and diagrams I couldn’t understand. Test tubes and various things I’d only ever seen in fiction and that I only knew the names of because alchemy was a good money maker in Oblivion. If I’d learnt anything from video games, it was that filling your inventory with potions which you may never use was a surefire way to keep your character alive when you were way out of your depth.
“This…” I muttered to myself. “This could work.”