Chapter 15 - Fancy Clothes

Nate sat a few metres from the smoking corpse of the Lobster. The euphoria from so much processed mana was quickly fading as he felt his Core spreading the energy throughout his body. His mind quickened under the stream, though the improvements were becoming less noticeable. That made sense to him though. Moving from twenty to forty Intellect was effectively doubling his intelligence or at least whatever part of his mental capabilities Intellect focused on. But moving from forty to almost fifty? That was only a twenty five percent improvement. Still powerful and useful, but far less noticeable.

Frick had explained to him about how the banishment would work and how the Familiar Contract that bound them would absorb mana slowly until there was enough for Frick to reconnect with the material plane. That had come with the additional option of feeding mana to the Familiar Contract directly to accelerate the process. Nate knew he was delaying looking at his notifications, but he wanted Frick present when he did. The Familiar had earned that much, and it would help them work better together in the future. Not to mention Frick knew more about the System than he did.

As he funnelled mana from his Mana Reserve into the Familiar Contract, he could feel the rune filling in his chest. It was going to take a little while, so Nate contented himself with keeping an eye out. He hoped that the Lobster’s corpse would keep the boars away for a while, since it seemed it had been their predator. But even if they came, attracted by the smell of the cooked meat, he was confident he could take them with his Earthen Projectile rune.

An undisturbed half an hour later, by his estimate, Nate felt Frick begin to materialise. A smirk slid onto his face as the little blue goblin-looking Familiar appeared, arms spread wide and leaning back cackling.

“That was the most amazing thing ever! Did you see me, boss man? That giant lobster was all like psssh and crash! Breaking the place up! Then boom, Frick down the throat and the bugger is toast! It was so glorious!” Frick cackled, dancing a little jig.

Nate couldn’t help but smile at his antics and let the Spirit dance and cackle for another minute before clearing his throat.

Frick glanced over at him, wiping away a pretend tear, “Sorry boss. That was the most goblin thing I have ever done. Really need to revel in it ya know? So anyway, what reward did you get from The System? Was I right? Was it a Bonus Challenge?”

“Let’s find out. I haven’t looked at my Notifications yet. Actually, I never asked, but is there a way I can make it so that you can see them?”

“What do you mean you haven’t looked yet?!?! Why not? And yeah of course you can. Just you know, focus on them, and tell The System you want them to display. You can even do like…partial displays. You know? Show off your Primary Class but not your level and things like that. But back to the more important point… why in the nine hells haven’t you looked at your Notifications? Don’t you want that sweet, sweet loot? I thought that was like candy to you meat sacks!” Frick railed.

Nate smiled again. Frick’s antics were making him feel better already.

“Let’s go through them together.”

With a thought he made it so that Frick could see the Notification and brought up the first one.

Accrued Mana applied to Primary Class.
Level up…
Level up…
Level up…
Level up…

Stats adjusted: +8 Dexterity, +4 Endurance, +8 Intellect, +8 Creativity, +4 Perception, +8 Mana Reserve, +20 Free Stats

Runic Intent Level 3 > 5
Improve Material 3 > 5

Skills Available! Please Select 1* Skills.
Class Skill Options:

Improved Mana Reserve (Rare)
Spells and Skills. Most require mana and so the measure of a researcher, a mage, a warrior, is how much mana they can wield and how long they can last. For those lucky few, this Skill increases the users Mana Reserve by 5%. Increases by 0.5% per Skill Level.

Improved Magic Power (Rare)
A Spell is only as powerful as the strength of one’s mana. With enough Magic Power one can turn a gentle rain into a slicing storm or a campfire into a blaze hot enough to melt stone. For those lucky few, this Skill increases the users Magic Power by 5%. Increases by 0.5% per Skill Level.

Improved Magic Control (Rare)
The more mana one wields, the harder it becomes to control. What is the point of using a spell that summons a firestorm that burns down a forest when you just want it to incinerate your enemies? Those with exceptional Magic Control get more out of their spells and mana. For those lucky few, this Skill increases the users Magic Control by 5%. Increases by 0.5% per Skill Level.

Runic Replication (Rare)
Runecrafter’s need to create tens of thousands of runes in their lifetime. The easiest way to do this is copy a rune you’ve already created. Runic Replication allows the user to spend mana to replicate an already created rune. Time and mana cost is based on Intellect, Skill Level and the quality of the rune being replicated.

Runic Modification (Epic)
Sometimes you create your rune and its structure is not fit for purpose. Happens to the very best. This skill allows the user to spend mana to make modifications to a completed rune. Changes made cost mana with the cost based on Intellect, Creativity, Skill Level and the extent of the modifications desired.

“Four levels in one go. That’s pretty damn good eh? Told you it was worth it. What Skill are you thinking?” asked Frick.

“I am leaning towards Runic Replication. The percentage bonus from the three ‘Improve’ Skills seems kind of low and I don’t know enough sigils that Runic Modification would be useful. Plus, with Runic Replication I can use you to set traps by having you replicate Runes. Thoughts?” responded Nate.

“Ya going to be mad if I am honest, boss man?”

“Of course not. Hit me with it.”

“Then look, I think you’re right in choosing Runic Replication, but not for the reasons you said. You’re right about how I could use it to help you set traps and it is a HUGE timesaver and you’ve got the mana to spare for now it seems. Using those mana gems like they’re going out of fashion. You’ll have to tell me where you got them from at some point, Dead Realmer.” Frick said with a meaningful look.

“But you’re so wrong about those Improve Skills. Sure, five percent might seem low, but every level that increases by another point five percent till the twentieth level in the Skill when it will give you a whopping fifteen percent bonus. That is HUGE! It also doesn’t stop at level twenty. You don’t even see those Skills offered outside of rare Skill Orbs and Epic Classes… though I suppose Legendary too. You’re my first Legendary, boss man!”

“That is a lot better than I thought. So, you think I should take one of them?” Nate asked.

“Nah, you don’t have the stats to make it worth it yet and we’ll get more use out of Runic Replication in the short term. But we should consider them later when you’re around level sixty to eighty,.” Frick grinned at Nate’s bewildered expression and continued before he could respond. “That’s right meal ticket. We’re going all the way! Wait wait wait! I love that line! Just remember boss man, it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock’n’roll! Anyway, we should look at your reward before we choose a Skill boss. Might be some synergy we could take advantage of.”

Nate just shook his head with a little laugh. Frick reminded him of a little of Jung, his friend back on Earth. He’d always had a comedic streak as well. It made him feel a little nostalgic, but it was a nice relief. With a thought Nate brought up the second Notification.

Congratulations on defeating an enemy more than 20 Levels above you.
Your achievement has been recorded.

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

“Not bad boss man. That should get you a step closer to evolving your Class up a Tier!” Frick said with a grin.

“Anything else I should know about these achievements or are we ready to move onto the last Notification?” asked Nate.

“Bring it on! Show me the money!!” Frick said excitedly.

Nate flicked up the last Notification with a thought.

You have completed a Dungeon challenge!
Dungeon: The Temple of Q’ival
Challenge (Bonus): Defeat the Juvenile Freshwater Kraken Lobster.
Challenge (Special): Defeat the Juvenile Freshwater Kraken Lobster while being lower than Level 10.
Challenge (Special): Defeat the Juvenile Freshwater Kraken Lobster as a party of one.
Challenge (Special): Defeat the Juvenile Freshwater Kraken Lobster as a party of one while being lower than Level 10.

As a reward for completing a Challenge (Bonus) and 3x Challenge (Special) all reward options are enhanced significantly.

Challenge Rewards (Select One):
1. Equipment
2. Knowledge
3. Core Enhancement

Please select your reward.

“Holy shit boss! Core Enhancement!” For once Frick seemed gobsmacked. The Familiar just stared at the blue screen, mouth open and eyes wide.

Nate waited to see if he would expand on that, but Frick just kept staring.

“I take it that Core Enhancement is a good Reward Frick?” he asked.

“It’s amazing is what it is. And the worst part is, I am not even sure that is what you should take…” Frick seemed truly distraught, eyes still on the Notification. “Need to keep reminding myself you know nothing boss man. Core Enhancement is, as the name implies, enhancing your Class Core. It’s a guaranteed Tier improvement at your next Class evolution. In case I am not being clear, it means when you evolve your Primary Class at level twenty one, you would get offered at least one Mythic Tier Class. Which is just incredible. But… you could potentially achieve that on your own and it won’t help you right now. But that means the other two Rewards are equally amazing. Core Enhancement is a Legendary reward. That means you can get Legendary Knowledge or a piece of Legendary Equipment,” Frick reached up to pull at his blue ears in frustration.

“Think Knowledge would give me more sigils to work with?” Nate asked.

“I mean maybe. The System curates the Rewards to be fitting for the individual. It could give you a Knowledge Skill or it could provide you with details about this world or The System itself, since you know bupkis. It’ll be good whatever it gives but it has the same problem as Core Enhancement… no guarantee it benefits you right away,” Frick responded, tugging even harder on his ears as he continued. “So your options are, guaranteed Mythic Class option at Level twenty one. Legendary Knowledge, which could be a Skill, Sigils, Runes, System Information or World Information. I can’t think of anything else it would give. Or Legendary Equipment.”

Nate nodded in thinking through the options, but there was a piece of information that Frick had mentioned that would impact his final decision.

“You mentioned something about me evolving my Class tiering up without this reward. What did you mean by that?” he asked.

Frick sighed, deflating as he flopped down onto the grass, blue legs akimbo. “Tiering up is a matter of Achievements. To get to a Mythic tier class would require some serious achievements. But you’ve already got a few if you got a Legendary Class. More than that, there is a surefire way to manage it.”

Nate looked at Frick, eyes boring into the goblin as he waited.

“Fine. You have a Legendary Skill. Improve Material. If you achieve a Skill Evolution to Mythic for that Skill you’re guaranteed an Achievement that will unlock a Mythic Class at your Tier Evolution.”

Nate closed his eyes thinking through his options. His speed of thought with his improved intellect still shocked him as he blurred through the pros and cons of each of the options. Core Enhancement was a well defined reward. He knew exactly what he was getting from it, and tiering up his Primary Class was a lot of future power. It also, given his current Skills meant he would likely get at least one Mythic Skill from doing so. It also had the downside that he could achieve the same outcome without the reward.

The Knowledge option was both incredibly interesting and incredibly vague. Beneficial, guaranteed. But how it benefited him was up in the air. Would the benefits come now or in the future? What if the Knowledge it imparted was something like the location of more Dungeons. Useful to his development, but useless here and now. No, it was too vague. So he ruled that option out. That left Equipment.

“Frick, how common is Legendary Equipment?” asked Nate.

“Rare. Incredibly rare. The sort of equipment held by famous heroes and kings and queens. At least until you’re over level one hundred. Maybe it’s a little more common at those heights.”

Nate nodded, his decision made. He couldn’t get Legendary equipment for himself in the short term, but he likely could get a Mythic Class on his own merits.

“Equipment it is then,” he said.

Frick looked torn, his face scrunched up like he was at war with himself, hands wrapped around his floppy blue ears. “Yeah… Equipment… I can’t believe we’re giving up on Core Enhancement... but yeah, no point taking the risk. You need to survive to evolve your Class and the Equipment, no matter what it is, will help with that,” Frick let out a defeated sigh as Nate locked in his choice with a thought.

The ground in front of Nate shimmered through a rainbow of colours, reminding him of the place between universes. It was beautiful and he stared captivated until it had faded, leaving in its place what looked like a dark blue folded robe decorated with a single white star on the chest.

Before he could do it himself he felt Frick activate his Identification Skill before the Familiar snorted.

“Must be good. Your Identification Skill can’t even tell what it is. The System wouldn’t do that to you. Did it give a Notification?” Frick asked.

Nate nodded as the Notification had appeared in the corner of his vision and he brought it up for Frick and him to review.

Robe of the Prepared Runecaster (Legendary) (Growth)
Stats: +20 Magic Power, +10 Agility
Features: Rune Storage (Variable), Item Concealment (Legendary), Innate Repair (Epic), Temperature Control (Rare), Self-Cleaning (Rare)

Rune Storage: By interfacing with the Control rune found inside the robe on the left breast, the wearer of this robe can force the robe to store Runes within the threads that can be activated by the wearer. Runes can be changed in and out by utilising the Control rune. Number of runes available is equal to the wearer's Creativity / 10.

Item Concealment: This Item is Enchanted to conceal its nature from identification. Powerful enough identification Skills will bypass this Enchantment.

Innate Repair: This item is Enchanted to repair itself over time using ambient mana. Feeding the Enchantment mana can accelerate this process.

Temperature Control: This item is Enchanted to protect against the basic elements and has in-built temperature controls which can be accessed via the Control rune.

Self-Cleaning: This item is Enchanted to clean itself, and to some extent its wearer. This is not an excuse not to bathe.

Frick laughed, “Told you boss man. Rewards crafted to you. Well throw it on already. Let’s see how you look!”

Nate rolled his eyes but did as requested. Standing, he emptied his hoodie pockets before stripping it off and moving it into his spatial storage. It might not be his go-to fashion choice anymore, but it could still work as a pillow. Picking up the midnight blue robe he took a moment to marvel at the tailoring. The star was exquisitely done and shone silver or white depending on the reflection from the light. The fabric was soft, and he found it was double layered with a softer inner layer beneath a sturdier outer layer.

All in all, it felt amazing. Inside on the left breast was the control rune the description had mentioned. It didn’t look like his regular runes, which generally had multiple sigils within geometric shapes. Instead, it had a single sigil for Control within a golden stitched circle, surrounded with inlaid blue gems. He quickly slipped his arms into the robe and found that when he folded it across his chest there were cinches inside to hold it together. This made it so, when bound, the fabric parted down his chest on an angle. That would make it easy to move in, he thought. The temperature in the Dungeon hadn’t been bad but the slight coolness Nate now felt was eminently better. As he took in the appearance he noticed that three more stars in the same threaded fashion manifested onto the robe. One formed on each arm and the last one close to his waist on the left. Thinking about it for a moment Nate realised that these must be the places he could store runes. His Creativity was at forty four and three new stars had been added which took it to four total rune slots which aligned with the robe description.

With a grin he looked to Frick, “So, what do you think?”

“I think boss man, that you’re starting to look like a real mage,” Frick gave him two thumbs up, which looked weird with the goblin’s sharp toothy grin.

“Thanks Frick. Now watch this!” Nate took that moment to select his Skill, choosing Runic Replication as they had planned. He felt the buzz in his Core as the new Skill settled inside of it. Reaching down to the ground he picked up his two runes, Barrier and Earthen Projectile. Then, controlling his mana he reached out to his new Skill and the control rune and felt in his mind how the control rune connected to four locations in the robe.

He could tell that normally one would have to mentally craft the rune into the robe using mana for it to take hold. Instead with Runic Replication he felt the robe connect to the Skill and the Barrier rune slotted onto his chest. Looking down at the robe he could see his rune inlaid in golden thread onto the star on his chest. It was only about the tenth of the size of his normal rune but Nate could feel the quality of the material wasn’t going to inhibit how much mana he could put into the rune. He quickly followed up by putting the Earthen Projectile rune into the star on the sleeve near his right hand.

The whole time Frick was clapping like a lunatic with a giant grin on his face. “That’s two boss man. What are you going to put into the other two slots?”

“I was thinking a second Barrier rune and then the Mighty Fire rune,” Nate responded, still admiring the golden thread work.

“Sounds like a plan. So, what’s next for our daring duo, eh? More mayhem? We’re a goblin war party now. Gotta strike while the irons hot!” Frick yelled.

“I was thinking I would spend my Free Stats and then take the time to add Mighty Fire to the robe, which will take a little longer. While I was doing that, you mind cutting off a bunch of meat from the Lobster for us and anything else you think would be of value?” Nate asked, pointing to the pocketknife lying in the grass.

“Oh shit boss man. It’s probably left behind an Orb! I’ll get right on it!” Frick yelled.

“Wait, what? Orb?” was all Nate got out as the little goblin grabbed the knife and ran straight back into the maw of the now deceased lobster. Twice in one day thought Nate with a shake of his head as he sat down to craft his Mighty Fire rune.