New Story -- Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Closing his Character Report, Thaden took a deep breath as everything it imparted finally hit him. On the one hand, it was important information that imparted the knowledge that he was currently in some sort of world that utilized a system that reminded him a bit of video games, all of which somewhat made sense to his analytic mind. Granted, what that information told him was that he was quite weak and practically helpless without access to any of the weapons he had access to – but he tried not to let that get him down.

Because, on the other hand, he was in a magical world completely alien from Earth. How he arrived and why he was there in the first place was a separate issue in and of itself, of course, but the fact remained that he was in different place than he had been less than 24 hours before. And if he was understanding the Report correctly, he could cast spells.

Sadly, they were only healing and defensive spells without a fireball or something equally as flashy at his fingertips, but the fact that he could create something out of seemingly nothing was very little short of amazing.

As long as he somehow figured out how to cast spells without the “Training Simulation” that it appeared that he was supposed to have received. At least, that was the impression he got from the strange messages that appeared in his vision; the fact that something went wrong somewhere along the line was obvious by this point. All he needed to worry about now was surviving long enough to find a way back to Earth and out of the nightmarish place that he’d ended up – and to do that, he was hoping that his newly granted powers of spellcasting would help in that regard.

Thankfully, casting spells was easier than he thought it would be. He was worried that the “Training” he’d missed out on required days, weeks, or even months of memorization of some sort of magic words and gestures like in the old fantasy novels he’d read as a teenager, but that was far from the case. Instead, all it took was an inadvertent thought about his spells and another window appeared in front of him.

Available Spells: (You currently have 5/5 Access Slots available)

Weak Healing (Channeled) – 1 Access Slot

Weak Regeneration (Heal-over-time) – 1 Access Slot

Weak Repulsion (Channeled) – 1 Access Slot

The window was also accompanied by the appearance of a faint outline of five circles toward the bottom of his vision, all of them transparent and empty. It only took him a few seconds of consideration before his memories of the MMORPG he’d played in the past hinted at what these circles were for, and looking at his Available Spells, he assumed that they were the “Access Slots” they were talking about.

It took him a little bit of experimentation to figure out that he needed to mentally select a spell from the list and assign it to one of the Access Slots. Once he was able to figure out the first spell, Weak Healing, the first Access Slot on the left side was filled with a dim, white light. Expecting a symbol of some kind, at least from what he remembered from the games he’d played in the past, he realized that it wasn’t necessary, as he immediately knew what spell was in the first Access Slot, including its effects, casting time, and Mana cost without having to think about it.

That’s quite handy.

The other two spells, Weak Regeneration and Weak Repulsion Field, were quickly transferred to the next two Access Slots, and they, too, imparted their spell information to him with nothing more than a mental inquiry. It wasn’t as if he needed to read it, either, as the knowledge of what they did and, more importantly, how they were cast were immediately available in his mind.

As an experiment, he mentally selected the first Access Slot with Weak Healingin it, and he was surprised to find that a seemingly natural prompt appeared in his mind asking for a target. There wasn’t a voice or a message that accompanied the prompt; instead, it was almost like there was an invisible checklist that he instinctively knew he needed to mark off before the spell could be completed.

Obviously choosing himself, he found his arms automatically raise up slightly from his sides until they bent at the elbows with his forearms parallel with the floor. As his palms turned so that they were facing upwards, a white glow surrounded his hands and a strange warmth flowed through his arms from some internal reservoir that he thought originated in his chest. A couple of seconds later, he felt a refreshing wave of pleasant healing energy flow through his entire body, removing any sense of discomfort that he hadn’t even noticed was there, including some lingering pain in his foot. He let the comforting energy continue to flow through him for at least a dozen seconds before he mentally canceled the spell, and the energy cut off abruptly along with the glow surrounding his hands.

Cocking his head to his side in confusion, he looked at his Character Report again to see how much Mana he had spent, but it hadn’t changed from the 20/20that it showed before.

Hmm….

It was to soon to tell if that was normal or not, but he reasoned that he might not have spent any Mana on the spell because he hadn’t actually been hurt according to his “Health”. It was entirely possible that without any actual recovery of Health, there was no expenditure of Mana.

Naturally, he tried out the second spell, Weak Regeneration. This time, his arms came up in front of him as soon as he cast the spell and designated himself as the target at the mental prompt, and a green-tinted white light flashed though his hands in the blink of an eye. With an instant casting time, the spell was over before he could even figure out what was going on; the effects, however, were apparent, as a similar healing energy as before flowed through his body every five seconds or so, and he could see a faint, green-tinted white aura surrounding his arms and the other parts of his body that he could see. Approximately 45 seconds later, the aura faded, leaving him looking normal – or as normal as could be wearing blood-stained, borrowed clothing of dead people.

While all of that was happening, Thaden had opened his Character Report while he had cast the Weak Regeneration spell, wanting to see if it was going to consume his Mana this time. Surprisingly, there was no change to his Mana – not even a tiny blip indicating that it was being consumed. This matched with what he felt in his chest as the source of the energy that powered the two spells that he had cast, as there didn’t seem to be any reduction in its strength.

Again, though, there was still the potential that the lack of Mana consumption could’ve been because he hadn’t actually been injured.  With that in mind, he began to activate his last spell, which he thought shouldn’t matter if he was hurt or not, when he heard something that petrified him with fear.

The sound of what he could only describe as high-pitched bickering in a foreign language reached his ears, coming from beyond the door. Before he could react and attempt to hide – despite there not being anywhere for him to actually conceal himself – the door swung wide, revealing Thaden standing near the open chest with an expression on his face that likely indicated that he was just about to crap his bloody pants. Thankfully for everyone involved, he didn’t have anything in his bowels, so he was saved from the indignity.

Looking at the two figures that had just opened the door, staring with almost equally surprised expressions on their grotesque faces, Thaden saw something floating above their heads that shocked him.

Vogmite Worker – Minimal

Level 5

Vogmite Worker – Minimal

Level 6

Not only could he see a red-colored text floating above their heads naming what they were, but he could also see that they were higher-Leveled than he was – by quite a bit, in fact. He halfway expected there to be a red bar to go along with the text, indicating their current Health, but this wasn’t exactly a video game no matter what it looked like.

Case in point, as Thaden stood there frozen in shock and fear at the appearance of the Vogmite Workers, he was caught off guard when both monstrous figures pulled small knives out of somewhere inside their furry bodies and lunged at him. They were almost on him before he reacted in a panic, throwing himself backwards, which didn’t work out too well in the end as he immediately tripped over the chest and tumbled over the back of it, landing awkwardly on his wrist. With a hollow *pop*, he felt the joint break as it was bent in the wrong direction, but his adrenaline was pumping hard enough that he ignored the coming pain as he scrambled to his feet.

By the time the panicked Assistant Healer got his balance, the first creepy Vogmite was already upon him, stabbing his side through his already damaged shirts with a quick jab before pulling it back out with a spray of blood. As he staggered backwards, Thaden’s back hit the wall, and he knew he was trapped as he held his good wrist to his injured side, hoping to stop the bleeding even as he was cut off from fleeing by the quick actions of the Vogmites assembling themselves to cut off any route of escape.

As the two of them moved in with vicious grins on their faces, the bloodlust and potentially even hunger written all over their expressions, Thaden was conscious of his Health continuing to decline as his wound continued to bleed profusely. He didn’t get a chance to check what he was already at, but he suspected that half of it had already been taken away from that initial attack, so he didn’t have much longer to live.

It was at that point, when the two Vogmites were looking to finish the job of slaying him that Thaden remembered who he was now – and that he had a Class that could heal him. With a quick thought to activate the second Access Slot, his hands went up ahead of him and instantly cast Weak Regeneration on himself. While it wasn’t instant relief from the pain, he knew that it would eventually heal all the damage that had been done to him – if he lived that long.

With that thought in mind, he activated the third Access Slot, forgetting for a moment in his panic that it cost him all his Mana to use Weak Repulsion Field for a single second. Only when his fingers on both hands snapped in unison, emitting blue sparks and forming a transparent, glowing blue barrier that extended a few inches away from his entire body, that he realized that the 10 Mana that should’ve been spent on his Weak Regeneration spell apparently hadn’t consumed any Mana – because the Field went off without a hitch.

It was just in time, too, as the pair of knives looking to end his life rebounded off the blue barrier and caused the Vogmites holding them to be pushed back with enough force that one of them tumbled head over heels, while the other tripped over its own feet and landed on its back. Saved from death, at least temporarily, Thaden watched as they got up, looking slightly annoyed at being repulsed as they came for him again; unfortunately, neither of them looked the slightest bit hurt by being flung away, so all using his Weak Repulsion Field had done was buy him an extra few seconds. Since at his Level, the spell should only last for a second, he should’ve been completely helpless.

Strangely, though, the Field persisted even after a second, and continued after another, and then a third. A brief flash of his Character Report before he mentally closed the window showed that his Mana still wasn’t depleting for some reason. So, it wasn’t just the healing spells? None of these spells cost Mana to cast?  Even as he got ready to run away from the deadly knives of his assailants, he felt the first burst of healing energy enter his body, dramatically slowing the bleeding in his wound; it wasn’t healed completely yet, but he could feel that it was on its way.

He took one step before the Vogmite on his right, which had simply been knocked on its back instead of sent tumbling away, lunged at him from about 5 feet away, passing through the distance between them in a flash. With the Field still active around him, his attacker was knocked back once again – though less dramatically, as the Vogmite seemed to be ready for it – with no additional injuries to Thaden. The sudden stab toward his stomach startled him so much, however, that the Assistant Healer jumped to the side in shock, right into the path of the other knife-wielding attacker.

His momentum sent the Vogmite flying to the side when he impacted it with his Weak Repulsion Field, and he watched as it slammed into the wall with significant force. As it fell to the floor after the collision with the wall, looking slightly dazed, Thaden’s continued momentum, panic, and shock at the circumstances caused him to trip and fall directly onto the downed Vogmite.

Or he would’ve fallen directly onto the spindly limbed monster if it hadn’t been for his protective spell, which kept him a few inches away from actually touching it. Direct contact with the Field on top of it, with nowhere to be repulsed, meant that the Vogmite received a constant barrage of pushbacks with no way to stop it as it struggled to free itself. Underneath his sprawled body, the monster was essentially beaten to a pulp as its chest and head were smashed and crushed from the pressure of the Assistant Healer’s spell.

You have slain a Vogmite Worker – Minimal – Level 5!

You have received—

A series of windows suddenly popped up in his vision, and he read the first line before mentally closing all of them in a panic. Just as he did, he saw out of the corner of his eye the other Vogmite launch itself at him with the intent to land on top of him, and he instinctively braced for a knife in his back, but the creature was repelled away from him and hit the ceiling before coming back down.

Shocked at the turn of events, Thaden rolled out of the way as the remaining Vogmite landed on top of its crushed companion, which it didn’t seem to care about in the least. Thinking to crush that one as well, the Assistant Healer attempted get to his hands and knees and throw himself on top of his assailant, but the monster was too quick for that. Launching itself up from where it landed upon its dead companion, the Vogmite Worker moved out of the way of Thaden’s clumsy attack and jumped off the nearby wall like it was a parkour master, flinging itself toward the door.

As it fled from the cave room and suddenly began to screech in the same high-pitched language that he’d heard before they arrived, Thaden winced at the slowly healing pain in his side as he got to his feet. Looking at the floor and the crushed remains of the Vogmite, he gagged a little at the gruesome sight.  Physically steeling himself as he closed his eyes and reminding himself that the little monster deserved it, he attempted to cast his Weak Healing spell to heal him the rest of the way instead of having to wait for his Weak Regeneration to finish the job, but it failed.

Only 1 channeled spell(s) can be active at the same time!

The message joined the others that he had ignored earlier, but he didn’t have time to look at them all quite yet. Instead, he mentally stopped channeling his Weak Repulsion Field and immediately felt vulnerable again; quickly casting Weak Healing on himself, he felt the wound in his side and the injury to his wrist miraculously heal themselves entirely, his limp wrist snapping back into place with a numb *pop* and the knife wound sealing itself up completely while fixing all the internal damage. The only physical evidence left after a few seconds to show that he was even injured was the still-wet blood further staining his shirts; of course, his mental trauma of being stabbed was still present, but he refused to dwell on it at the moment.

Instead, he had to move, before the Vogmite that ran away brought back a bunch of its friends. While it seemed as though he was suddenly invulnerable thanks to the fact that his Mana didn’t seem to deplete, he didn’t want to risk something being able to get around his protective spell.

Feeling much better after the heals, he cast another Weak Regeneration on himself and then started channeling his Weak Repulsion Field, protecting him as he ventured out of the treasure cave, leaving behind a bunch of weapons and armor he couldn’t use, a pile of rotting heads, and the squashed corpse of a Vogmite who encountered the wrong end of a panicked Assistant Healer.