49: Improvements
It took a bit of time to properly process the werewolf’s body, but Aidan managed to complete the procedure without ruining any of the valuable materials he managed to take off.
He took some lessons from Van throughout the week, ranging from properly processing the monster bodies to even combat lessons with a sword, and it was starting to prove its worth as he then crafted the leftovers into a small ball he named ‘Resource Balls’.
A silly name for sure, but it was all the other parts of the body that wouldn’t really be worth anything for sale, but it was still a good amount of mass for his Craft spell to use to make into whatever items he could make. Considering it was all the unwanted parts of a creature, it would make a rather gross image in one’s head, but in reality it was just a black and brown ball with a completely clean surface the size of his fist. He could later re-shape the ball into whatever he wished to make, and it was easy to pack into the spatial bag without making a total mess from the inside.
He had been doing this procedure for the past couple of days since he started his training. Since then, he had been hunting monsters farther into the forest, taking on more powerful creatures with higher levels than before. He even went beyond the forest at one point and returned to the dungeon a few times, tackling the monsters he only faced with a party before.
Due to that, his level rose considerably throughout.
Level Up! From Level 16, you became Level 17!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
…..
Level Up! From Level 17, you became Level 18!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
…..
Level Up! From Level 18, you became Level 19!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
He gained three whole levels since then, and now that he had gotten some battle experience with his body, he realized what he needed to do with his stat build from here onwards.
Ever since learning how to use Infuse, he had been constantly practicing boosting his body to get a better feel of the magic no matter the environment. From his training, he realized that a lot of things could potentially disturb the magic and disrupt it, causing the power-up to vanish if he didn’t put a good hold over it.
At the same time, by focusing more on his magic power, he could keep boosting his body tremendously and even keep it up for hours on end, but that was when he recognized an issue. Even his own body, using its own magic, could easily tire out, and it wasn’t at the level of the mana being reduced either.
The body, constantly empowered by mana, could get taxed in a different form that could result in bone-deep exhaustion. It wasn’t something his Heal spell or his Soul-Mending water could fix either. When he checked up on some books about this sort of thing, he learned that the body could easily fall into a state of exhaustion when too much magic was used.
This was the reason why human beings couldn’t really live in areas that are heavily dense in mana, where normally only powerful creatures and monsters of higher levels resided. It required a strong body and an hardy constitution to live in those areas, because without it, they could easily fall and die from the overdose of mana constantly pumping into their lungs every single day.
So it made sense that his plan moving forward was to continue boosting his physical body as much as he could. With his Intelligence pretty damn high, he decided to focus on the next stat, his Agility.
Putting all his points in, it raised from 24 to 28. That prompted a rather nice notification that he totally forgot he could get.
You have gained a title!
“Speedster II”
You raised your Agility attribute to 25. You’re becoming faster and nimbler. Everyone has to ramp up just to be able to catch you!
+2 Agility
giving it a giant boost to his overall mobility, which he was starting to truly see the benefits of.
As for why? It was simple. It didn’t just affect him on a physical range only.
Agility made him faster in ways it was hard to comprehend in real world standards. One would think it would improve the muscles and reduce the person’s weight, making it more compact and finer for improved speed.
But it affected everything, including his own spellcasting. As proof, he used Craft on the air around him, spinning it around himself as he grinned like a schoolkid.
His feet lifted off the ground, his body pulled effortlessly into the air as he was carried by the very wind he was commanding. He giggled maniacally as he flung himself into the air, not able to hold back his laughter even after doing this many times already.
That’s right; he learned how to fly.
Ever since he learned how to craft the air itself like how he crafted the earth to do his bidding, he always thought about how to pull this off. He thought about making it so that his body became lighter, but that would risk literally pulling the air out of his lungs, which was the last thing he wanted to do.
So instead, he constantly practiced pulling in as much air as possible to boost his body up, and after managing to lift several inches off the ground for the first time, he focused harder than before on making his childhood dream a reality.
Not to mention he already had experience flying through the air in his ghostly form, so it didn’t disturb him as much as he looked down at the forest below, easily noticing how the canopies completely covered the ground and the vastly life-threatening environment it contained within. That only made traveling between the city and back even faster, allowing him to travel back to the dungeon without spending too much time on his feet.
Boosting his Agility also made it so that even his casting and preparing the air for him to fly with was faster as well, and with his boosted body through Infuse, he could easily make it back to town in just a matter of minutes rather than the two hours it would take to get back.
That did unfortunately bring in some new problems he didn’t think about before, such as leaving behind a powerful burst of air whenever he would travel at high speed through the sky. It sometimes caused the trees underneath to shake and fall, causing a lot of disturbances that made the weaker monsters underneath to scatter away, often leaving nothing for the other adventurers and travelers to hunt in the outer layer of the forest near the city.
That’s why he opted to get as high as he could into the sky, making sure that he wouldn’t leave behind a powerful burst near the surrounding areas as he returned back to the city at full speed.
Of course, he made sure to make himself invisible using Vanish when he returned, not wishing to surprise anyone else that a man was just flying by and bypassing the front entrance without authorization. He couldn’t even imagine what sort of laws he could be breaking by flying through the sky, though he knew that if he could fly with magic, others surely could as well, so laws just had to be made for such a thing.
In what felt like a matter of heartbeats, he found himself floating above the Raining Treasures. He sent a pulse of Sense Vibrations throughout the town, seeing the others he usually kept an eye on still living their lives as usual. He kept finding himself doing so because oftentimes, he noticed that there were some thugs harassing or bullying others behind alley ways and covering behind structures, hiding from sight.
With his ability, he could easily send a wave of mana down, using Craft to stop the thugs from going too far by commanding the earth to entrap them, allowing their victims to run free. The earth would crumble away in just a few minutes afterwards, leaving the thug to just get confused before reluctantly leaving.
It was strange, but he could easily cast his mana from the air instead of being in between buildings, which he supposed made sense as he needed something to connect to via vibrations. Since his powers rely heavily on sensing frequencies and controlling vibrations, if various structures or buildings stood in their way, it would disrupt the vibrations by hitting the wrong target. Up in the air, he could easily cast magic through the air without any obstructions. It was a decent trick he learned through his training, upping his range of magic easily.
He lowered himself down into the building after his usual check of his surroundings, phasing through the roof and finding himself at the main storefront floating in the air. He really felt like a ghost doing this, which with his experience with Soul Meditation only made it easier to do. Still invisible, he checked around the store and found that it was empty, save for none other than Haley doing her usual routine.
She was humming a tune while putting some items onto the shelves, making them nice and orderly as she always did. The demon whispering in his head made him smirk as he crept up right behind her. When she turned back around, he dispersed his Vanish spell around his head only right in front of her.
“Boo.”
“Whabagaah!”
Haley screamed an obscenely silly noise, her eyes wide in fright before chucking out several products from the shelf straight at the disembodied head in front of her.
Her aim was piss-poor in her frightened state which only made Aidan laugh out loud. After realizing the perpetrator, Haley looked like a blushing tomato as she screamed.
“You asswad! You scared the crap out of me!”
“I know. It was worth it,” Aidan giggled like a maniac, spinning his disembodied head around all the while. Haley literally trembled in anger before letting out a defeated sigh and decided to ignore him.
Aidan quickly apologized, making himself appear fully and landing back on the floor like a normal person. However, Haley refused to talk to him, clearly busy doing her work while ignoring her senior who was trying his hardest to apologize.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. You just look so cute when you get scared like that.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, mister,” Haley huffed. “You’re so childish even though you’re this strong. Seriously, is this what powerful people do in their spare time? Scaring the crap out of poor people like me?”
“I said I’m sorry! Look, how about this? I’ll make dinner and I’ll make you whatever you want–sound like a plan?”
“...Are you gonna buy some expensive meat?”
“And I’ll even add in some drinks from your favorite pub.”
“...Deal.”
Aidan did a small fist bump at his victory, even if it would cost him quite a bit from his wallet. Not that it would be an issue. Thanks to his constant hunting, he managed to get quite a bit of funds from selling the materials to the guild that handled monster materials for trade.
Forontia was actually a decent place to find some rare monster materials for the other cities around the country to settle on, but at the same time, its tough living habitat, including the gangs that lived there, made Forontia a tough place to do business sometimes. However, the area around the Raining Treasures was considered a safe haven for those who wished to live without the constant threat of gang members stepping into their businesses, which is how many people who owned a business started flocking here whenever they could as more and more people came in.
The rumors of the Raining Treasures being tough enough to push off any gang members from assaulting or even harassing them proved to be quite a fortune for the small business owners with no power added to their name, and Aidan was all up for that as it only provided more business for his jack-of-all-trades store that sells all the necessary items for these local business owners that might need them.
That included a recent pub that opened up which Haley always liked to visit, and Aidan certainly liked the atmosphere done in the place.
“How was business?” Aidan asked now that he was in the clear with Haley. Though that probably won’t stop him from doing another little surprise in the near future.
“Decent, to say the least. People are talking that the Red Riot’s been unusually quiet these days, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how anxious you can be.”
“Yeah…” Aidan quickly recalled them destroying the crown at their place, so he figured they must be on total lockdown to find out who exactly destroyed their precious crown.
Soon the door opened up to reveal Van who seemed to be in a cheery mood. His smile seemed to light up when he saw Aidan and Haley, waving at them.
“Hey! I finally did it! I bought a bag!”
Van ran up to the two, and they eagerly waited for Van to reveal the small bag he was carrying beside him. It was a simple leather pouch, but that was only on the surface. Aidan quickly noticed the intense mana radiating around the bag, and a very familiar enchantment that he was quickly starting to recognize as an essential part for any person in a fantasy world.
“You finally got a spatial bag, eh? Congrats,” Aidan said.
“I couldn’t have gotten it at all without you,” Van said, his smile still plastered on his face. “Do you have any idea how expensive these things are? If it weren’t for you always hunting monsters and giving me the materials, this never would’ve happened.”
“It’s all because you always help in selling them in the first place,” Aidan said. “I prefer not to let anyone know exactly how I got them in the first place, and you’re always the go-to for me to do that.”
“People are constantly asking me where I’m finding the guy who keeps handing me materials, you know?” Van asked. “They were even offering to pay for the information, but obviously, I made sure to keep it quiet.”
“I appreciate that, man,” Aidan grinned.
“Is it really okay for Van to keep the bag, though?” Haley asked to be sure as she stared at Aidan.
“Considering all that he did, it’s only to pay him back for it,” Aidan said to ease Haley’s worries. “This way, I can keep my own spatial bag to keep getting more stuff while Van gets to have an easy load off when he’s doing his thing.”
“That’s a good point,” Haley smiled.
“Plus, he helped me out a lot by getting some experience fighting. I even got a skill thanks to him.”
Aidan said as he pulled up all the times he improved his powers throughout the week, including a brand new skill from his training with Van.
Spell Upgraded! Heal (Copper) became Heal (Bronze)!
…..
Spell Upgraded! Phase (Copper) became Phase (Bronze)!
…..
Skill Upgraded! Multicast (Iron) became Multicast (Steel)!
…..
Ability Upgraded! Magic Boost (Bronze) became Magic Boost (Iron)!
…..
Ability Upgraded! Channel Mana (Copper) became Channel Mana (Bronze)!
…..
Ability Upgraded! Magic Focus (Bronze) became Magic Focus (Iron)!
…..
You have gained a new skill!
Sword Proficiency (Copper)
Allows you to understand the intrinsic details of swords, including how to properly fight with any type of sword. Your body is easily acclimated to using the weapon, using greater control and finesse.
The skill definitely came as a surprise, but throughout the times Van spent with Aidan out in the field practicing sword forms and how to properly swing and block, it showed that Van was easily a good teacher who knew what he was talking about.
He thought he might need more time to learn something like swordsmanship, but Van’s instructions were easy and relatable, so it easily cemented how to properly fight with a sword. Thanks to the skill, he was even able to transfer it to his swords controlled with his mind, making them more proficient in fighting alongside him.
He really did owe Van a lot, especially since he was doing it out of the spare time he could have by actually going out and increasing his levels for himself.
Van actually looked rather embarrassed, looking away while Aidan sang his praises on how he managed to learn the skill before the door opened up once again. Aidan somehow felt deja-vu occurring as the one who entered was none other than Nina in her leather cloak.
“Hey, Nina!” Aidan shouted, though the siblings quickly clammed up when she came in. “Been a while. Did you manage to get anything?”
When he asked that question, Nina looked up at him and gave him the sort of stare that could melt through steel beams. Her soul rose in clear agitation, making Aidan clam up as soon as he saw her expression.
Then, quickly, her soul returned to normal as she answered barely a second later.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything of worth for our little problem…”
“Oh, don’t worry, these two know about the attack coming.”
Aidan answered, which prompted Nina to once again answer with a rise from her soul. She looked at both the siblings dead in the eyes as they looked ready to bolt at any moment. Van cleared his throat, taking her attention.
“We… heard about it, though it really does seem pretty far-fetched. But we have been making plans since then and I think things are heading in the right direction.”
“Y-Yeah, did you see Aidan’s level rising pretty fast these days?” Haley mentioned, pointing at Aidan.
Nina actually looked at Aidan questioningly and, for a moment, Aidan could sense her soul fluctuating a little. She kept a stoic face, but it was clear that she was surprised to see the outcome.
“You… have grown stronger,” Nina said slowly, stepping over to them and lifting the hood covering off her head. “And you gained a lot of ranks.”
It looked like Nina didn’t make it a habit of checking someone’s status consistently once she knew the full list. Aidan could understand it as his own list just keeps increasing in size the more he focused on improvement. It would be a pain in the ass to see every little change happening to his status, especially since he was still at a lower level at the time.
“Yep, and I’m about to start making plans on heading back into the dungeon,” Aidan said, grinning at her. “I’m thinking about going deeper into the floors and getting some levels.”
“Is that so…” Nina questioned, her arms crossed. Then, a small smile showed on her face as she replied. “Care to bring me along with you?”