46: Training for Buffs
‘Aidan, how the hell are you going to get stronger to go against a possible apocalypse level threat?’
He asked himself this very question throughout the entire time of his short journey back to the store. It was already late in the night, and everyone was asleep or busy with their own little business.
Aidan, on the other hand, was on the cusp of having an aneurysm from all the thinking he did. Unlike Nina, who was so sure of herself that she would do whatever it took to survive, Aidan saw not just with his eyes, but with his own soul.
The worst of it all was that he didn’t have a clue on when the threat would arrive. It might be in a week, a month, a whole year–or it could be the very next day. The anxiety alone was enough to sap whatever motivation he had left.
Even he, with all the power he possessed, could only falter at the very sight of the creature coming for their tiny city. After thinking of all the variables he could consider to avoid it, there was just no way he could leave Nina behind. He thought about arguing about it, convincing her that he could just get them whatever they wanted.
But her soul told him that it wasn’t the materialistic things she was worried about. She had a stake in this city, and she refused to let go of it no matter the cost. So the only possible thing he could do was to try and get strong enough to counter the threat once and for all.
So that led him to the question at hand; how would that work?
The only answer he could actually give was simple, yet utterly questionable. He just needed to get stronger.
First off, he needed levels. He knew now that his level was still vastly low compared to the ones he saw so far, particularly the Red Riot. Considering that they’d know at some point that Nina was still alive, it was possible that they might also face them along with the demonic threat coming for their city.
On top of levels, he needed equipment and items. His Soul Mending Water was exactly the sort of thing he might need against the threat, considering how often he drained his mana in his recent bouts so far. Having more abilities from his Mage Class could also be a boon, but he might have to consider creating new spells from his talent for the future as well.
Thankfully the thoughts became somewhat smoother after transitioning to how strong he could get, and he found himself back at his home at the Raining Treasures. The lights were still on, showing that the siblings were still in there putting everything away for the night.
He opened the door, catching their attention.
“Oh!” Haley said. “You’re back! How was it? Did everything turn out alright?”
She was currently busy carrying a box over to the counter with Van behind it, noticing Aidan coming in and waving at him with a smile. It looked like the two had a decent day managing the store with no issues. Unfortunately, despite coming back home, the siblings noticed Aidan’s expression and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Haley asked.
“I’m guessing something happened,” Van said, standing up from the counter. “Should we be worried?”
“That’s… you have no idea how close you are with that question,” Aidan said truthfully, immediately making Van’s soul rise in anxiety.
Aidan really couldn’t keep it a secret to the siblings. They were just as much stuck here as he was. He already thought about trying to break the contract on Haley’s side so they have a chance to leave, but he wasn’t confident that doing so might end up endangering her even more, considering that he never tried using Rend on another person without them extinguishing first.
So he told them the truth of what he and Nina learned, about the relic that killed people from far away with a powerful curse, and how that relic is calling forth a demonic being from god knows where to their city, aiming to destroy it and everyone within it.
That obviously got the two to start turning pale, their eyes widened and their souls were in a total mess. When Aidan finished with Nina being absolutely sure of staying behind and fighting the threat, Van slammed a fist down on the counter.
“Is she crazy?! She’s going to kill us all!”
“I tried to argue with her–”
“Did you!?” Van slammed the counter again. “I know you’re only doing this because you got some interest in her, but our lives are on the line!”
“Van, please–”
“Haley, you stay quiet,” Van hissed, intercepting his sister’s plea. “I told you I signed up for this because I want to protect my sister. In what way does this help in protecting her? That bitch is going to drag my sister to her death!”
“Van, calm down,” Aidan held up his hand, clearly seeing his soul rising in fury, too destabilized to remain in control. He wasn’t in his right state of mind. “Nina isn’t stupid enough to force your sister to stay behind. If anything, she’ll probably force her out of here to protect her own interest. You really think she’s gonna let her treasure-finder on the front lines?”
“That’s…” Van trailed off, his soul finally realigning itself to its neutral emotional state.
“I’m not sure what Nina’s plans are when she said she’s going to meet some of her contacts, but I’m sure she’s pulling up a team that could face this threat with all the resources she has. She’s probably desperate, but not stupid. I’m telling you this because I want you to be better prepared for when the day comes.”
“And you seriously don’t know when it’s going to happen?” Van gripped his fist tighter as he asked. “We don’t know when the city is gonna go up in flames and take us to our deaths?”
“No, I don’t,” Aidan answered truthfully. “And before you forget, I’m not keen on losing my life either. That’s why I’m going to focus on getting stronger.”
The room fell into silence after that. The two siblings looked at him strangely after he spoke his words. He figured they didn’t think him gaining any levels is gonna do anything, but their souls told him something else. They seem keen, almost interested, in what he might become.
“How exactly are you going to get stronger?” Haley asked. “I know how strong you are personally. But what are you gonna do?”
“Training, most likely,” Aidan shrugged. “Normally I go out and hunt by staying here and using my magic to possess my sword, and it goes out and kills monsters.”
“Wait, you can do that?” Van asked in surprise.
“Yeah, but I don’t think that’s gonna be enough,” Aidan shook his head. “I’m gonna have to go out there and earn some actual battle experience. That, and I can’t keep leaving materials around when I might need them to craft better items and gear.”
“So then, are you going to go back into the dungeon?” Haley asked. “Do you want us to come with you?”
Aidan shook his head. “Someone’s gonna have to manage the store, and right now, I’m not in a good position to head back into the dungeon yet. I need to first experiment a few things with the spells I already have. See what I have on hand and know what I can do with it.”
Haley let out a long breath, rubbing her chin in thought. “Aidan, if that’s how it’s gonna be, can I ask you to get me some herbs and plants I can’t reach from the forest? There are some rare flowers and fauna that are higher in rarity, but they’re surrounded by some pretty high level monsters. If you can get some for me, I might be able to make some potions that can boost your stats.”
“Stat-boosting potions?” Aidan asked in surprise. “You can make those?”
“I-I never tried it before, but we’re talking about a world-ending threat here, right? I wanna at least do my part too.”
“...I’ll go and see if I can pick up some quests and make some extra coin,” Van eventually said, sitting back down on the chair and closing his eyes. “Then I’ll go and see if I can buy anything we can use. Maybe Aidan can work some magic and make it better?”
“That’s a good idea,” Aidan pointed. “And Haley, give me a list of all the things I can find in the forest. Maybe some pictures too if you have any, something that lets me know what I’m looking for.”
“Alright!”
The group slowly came together to make various plans since then, talking for about an hour before the siblings left to their rooms to sleep. Van, instead, went back to their old home, which according to him was a shit place that rattled incessantly and had too many drafts for their liking. Once he settled things there, he would leave their home (which is mostly a shed really) to come and stay within the Raining Treasures.
Haley was going to make up a list that could help Aidan find some of the ingredients for the stat-boosting potions, while Van prepared his own plans to make some cash on the side.
Of course, during their talk, Aidan set up some bottles containing Soul-Mending Water for Van to carry back to the guild to sell his own personal mana potions. This way, Van can make some quick buck before anyone gets suspicious on where he got it. Van said that he could personally get away from trouble thanks to his good reputation within the guild, and nobody would ask too many questions once they know his sister often makes potions for sale anyways.
On that point, it was up to Aidan to bring them the tools they needed to help support him further on getting stronger. With a plan on hand, Aidan put his focus into his spells, seeing what they can become once he put more focus on making them useful in combat.
He had enough experience of what it’s like delving into a dungeon, and there was one thing he knew for certain–he lacked physical battle experience. He can certainly make up the firepower with his spells, but it won’t do anything if he was too slow or tired to focus on his casting.
With that, the first plan is to focus on figuring out how to get stronger in the short run. In other words, he needs to learn how to make buffs a thing.
…..
Throughout the night, Aidan was motivated enough to send out his sword through Soul Meditation to do some monster clearing, but as usual, just hunting in the outer boundaries of the forest wasn’t enough to grant him a level, the monsters being too low level for him to get any decent experience.
He was gonna have to increase his range if he ever planned to do more off-site experience grinding. But he realized then that the good way to do that is to personally experience the field for himself. So in the morning when the sun arrived, he left the store to Haley as Van was off at the guild making his business.
With Nina currently busy, nobody was around to order Van to stay in the store, and in a way, Van was helping the team overall, so Aidan had no problems with Van leaving to deal with his own business. He was slightly worried about leaving Haley behind, but with the levels she had under her belt, she promised that she could take care of herself, especially if she had her bow on hand.
Aidan wasn’t sure exactly how she could pull off firing a bow in the store, but he didn’t care. The store could get punctured with arrows out the wazoo for all he cared for as long as Haley was safe. He was also sure that the patrons who enter the store wouldn’t allow any thugs to mess with their favorite Raining Treasures spokesgirl anyways.
So with the worries left behind, Aidan headed off to the outer forest, entering into the greenery with a plan in mind. He needed to learn how to get stronger by seeing if he could replicate buffs.
Buffs, in this case, were power-ups that a character could use in a video game to make themselves stronger in a short time. This would increase their capabilities in combat, including offensive, defensive, and even speed, to ensure an easy battling against a stronger opponent.
He played plenty of video games where he knew buffs were important no matter what kind of strategy you’re planning, whether you’re going for an all-out kamikaze attack or turtling up in a defensive position to out-last your opponent.
After seeing how the equipment could have increased stats for the wearer, Aidan figured that he could do the same if he followed the logic. First, he pulled off the Arcane Ring from his hand, and he instantly felt his stats drop and his mana dwindling.
He tried to recognize the feeling of those changes in an instant, but it felt too distant for him to catch it. For now, he kept observing the ring, using Sense Vibrations to study it closer and closer than ever before.
The way the ring worked was that the enchantment poured mana onto the body of the wearer, but what Aidan wanted to do was see how that entered the body. He did the same before, allowing him to heal Van when he poured mana to restore the damaged body by pouring it into his soul, the frequencies that make up the spirit of the person. In a certain way, he could re-do that method in a different manner, and studying the ring in his hand might be a clue for that.
He kept putting the ring on and off his finger, seeing the changes done to his own soul along with the frequencies sent off by the ring whenever he alternated. The feeling of mana entering his body was almost instantaneous, but he definitely caught how it managed to enter the body. Rather than piercing the body through, entering straight into his soul, it actually entered into the skin, or rather, the outer layer of the body instead of the inside.
What he failed to see was exactly how much the energy within the ring managed to pierce through up until the point where it met the soul of the wearer, but Aidan figured out the gist of it as he finished his experiment.
Now that he knew how the ring worked its enchantment, it was time to see if he could replicate it. He thought about adjusting his Magic Boost to his own body rather than any of his spells, but grew disappointed when the ability refused to touch his body, only his spells.
He tried to see if using Channel Mana did anything, but the only thing it did was decrease the amount of mana he was recovering. He could potentially train to see if he could increase the amount of mana given by Channel Mana, but there was a reason why it was stuck in Copper despite being used all the time. It was hard to do.
That left him to use his spells, as Magic Focus only sharpened a spell and made it easier to use, just like Magic Boost. The only spell capable of boosting anything other than his spell was none other than Infuse.
The description said that it imparted a piece of his mana signature into anything, increasing the power. And the more mana he used, the more powerful it got.
He supposed having an unlimited range of mana cost made it possible that it was hard to pinpoint how to upgrade the spell’s rank. Not to mention that mana signature could mean anything, especially when it was his own mana signature that came into question.
Unlike affinities, like the elements fire and water, his mana signature is basically sensing the vibrations of harmony, which doesn’t really belong to the natural state of the world. In other words, unlike how he could basically use Infuse to make a fire sword if he had a fire affinity, he didn’t know what he could make from the affinity of harmony.
But due to the variety of spells he had, it only made sense that he could easily adjust his affinity however he wished. The way he infused the shortsword for Haley and the buckler for Van was proof of this.
And so far, there were no limits to how he could use Infuse, so technically, he could use the spell on anything he wanted. In other words, he can use Infuse not just on equipment or spells, but also on people.
He closed his eyes, channeling the spell from his hand and, with a careful mental image in mind, cast Infuse on himself.
He felt his own mana being drained, but at the same time, mana empowered him in a way that was different than just filling up his mana pool. He felt the mana coating his body, almost like how the ring did whenever he placed it on his finger, but then felt it drift off into the air and disappear into nothing.
He frowned at that. He was casting Infuse but it wasn’t latching onto him. He kept pouring mana, adjusting the spell’s range to make the mana stick onto his body rather than have it slip off of him. It took a while with a lot of trial and error, eventually forcing him to drink from his Soul-Mending container to retry again.
Finally, after close to an hour of adjusting the spell, the mana finally stuck close to his body rather than having it drift off. It coated his skin, seeping deep into the pores and straight into his innards, empowering him further than he could imagine.
Once he felt his body filling up like a water balloon, he stopped the spell, but still felt the energy radiating off of him as he looked at himself.
His body was glowing slightly, power filling his veins from every move he made. His muscles tensed up from the pressure of the energy, making him grip his fingers tight and punch the air.
Air pressure was released from the short punch, making him flinch from the sudden power exploding from his fist. He looked back at his hand, and then opened up his status screen to confirm.
“Holy shit… my Might is over 30!”
Just like that, he was able to increase his Might, which was a pitiful 14 in comparison to his high Intellect, by 20 points. He definitely felt the massive increase in stat gain now, his muscles aching and wishing to explode with power and–
Well, they were actually exploding. His muscles ached to the point where pain shot through his entire arm, forcing it to go limp on the side. When he tried to check the state, he found out that he tore off some vital muscles keeping his arm steady from that short punch.
“Oh–OH! Fuck!”
He was dazed for a bit from the sudden jolt of pain, but quickly realized the reason. It was too much strength used at once. In fact, it was so much that his normally unused muscles weren't able to get used to the sudden increase of power and execution of it.
He thought about how to properly spread his empowering buffs across multiple stats as he cast Heal on his now torn arm.