Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

“Are you sure you’ve got to head out?”

“Ahh, yeah. I really need to restock, and I think it’s time for me to head to another Rift. The boars are too easy now, and I want to check out the rewards from other Personal Quests.” Alex waved and smiled at the group he’d been camping with for the last four days.

While they’d largely done separate fighting and grouping during the day, Alex found himself enjoying their company each evening. The group had a good dynamic with lots of friendly banter and inside jokes.

“We’ll send you a connection request in the AG app. Hopefully, we can link up later.”

“Sounds good, take care.” Alex waved again over his shoulder as he turned and walked through the ever-growing camp toward the Rift exit.

It had been four days inside the Rift, and Alex was pleased with his progress. After being in the Rift and removed from the distraction of work and electronics, Alex found his mind clear. It was easier for him, without those distractions, to plan his next few steps.

Stepping out of the Rift, Alex took a few moments to assess his surroundings before stretching his back and beginning the short trek to his car.

It’s only Wednesday, and I’ve already been able to accomplish my goal. I gained another fifteen stones over the last four days in the Rift, bringing my total to 17 Mana Stones. This should easily let me purchase the entry material for Rituals and pay off my Guild tab.

Alex was surprised to realize that if he accounted for the value of the stones, he had made between $6,000 and $12,000 in the last four days.

Even more impressive is that it’s only been two days out in the normal world.

He watched as his phone powered on and he checked his missed notifications and saw the date and time. Exactly as he’d planned, it was Wednesday morning, and according to the timeline he had set for himself, he still had two days left to adventure.

Alex felt guilty after he closed the missed notifications from Mark and Sarah as he didn’t want to field their questions. He berated himself, as he knew he was being a shitty friend by not telling them more about where he was or what he was doing.

Before he made his way back to town, Alex tapped the logo of the Adventurers Guild App on his phone. The sword and shield on the background of a portal expanded, and the app had a few missed notifications as well.

He saw that Olivia had accepted his request, and he had even received one from Elana Voss. Once he accepted the new request, he opened a message to Olivia and asked if she had some free time to meet up this coming weekend and to exchange phone numbers.

Okay, that wasn’t too bad, right?

Alex often found it very hard to step out of his comfort zone or stand up for himself, but he felt like something within him was changing. Normally, after reaching out to someone like Olivia and asking if they wanted to meet up, he’d get too in his head, worried that they might get the wrong meaning or make fun of him. It was the same lack of confidence that often led to more tension and stress in his past relationships or family dynamics.

Is it from the Willpower stat? Or from actually putting my life in danger to fight and survive- to grow stronger?

He didn't want to think much harder on the topic, deciding that he was happy with the way things were going. To him, it didn't much matter if the growth was a result of stats gained from the System or from personal experiences.

Flipping through the app's navigator, he found the area where he could request to be put on a waitlist for any nearby Rifts within a two-hour drive.

This had been something that Alex debated on in his tent each night. The Boar Rift was great for two main reasons.

The first and most important was the time-dilation effect. While at first, he hadn’t quite understood the impact of such a thing, it quickly became apparent. The advantage of being able to spend twice as long inside the Rift should have been clear as day to him, and he was still a bit embarrassed that one of his camping mates had to explain it to him. It was the biggest conversation next to infinite resources. People could live multiple times longer if they were willing to forego technological comforts and risk monsters. Even then, as magic was better understood, Alex could see a world where the rich and wealthy lived within Rifts while hiring people to thin the monster populations. They could have magical comforts and luxuries even nicer than those on Earth.

The second advantage was that it was easy. The boars only presented between the levels of one and four, making them quite easy and predictable to manage. Also, some of those at the camp had explained to Alex that, normally, Rifts would contain small ecosystems and many different kinds of beasts. That particular Rift seemed to be having issues because of the spreading corruption.

Regardless of the logistics, I need to step things up. I’m interested in making money and getting Mana Stones. But I’m even more interested in leveling up and gaining experience.

It had been obvious after reaching the fourth level, that when he was a higher level than the hardest boar, he would be gaining experience much slower. It had taken him significantly more boars to hit level four then compared to level three.

Setting his phone down briefly, Alex pulled up his Status Window.