Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

The following two days passed in a blur as Alex fought wolves for his Personal Quest.

After earning his new [Empowered Step] skill, he learned several things about how the System worked.

When Alex first met John Riley, the older man mentioned that skills were “learned or earned.”

Learning, in that case, Alex realized, must refer to discovery through experimentation or being taught directly. Alex was confident that if he were to try, he would be able to walk someone through the process of gaining the [Empowered Step] skill as well. As long as they had the ability to sense and move mana like he did.

Earned implied that there was some way to gain them through merit.

Perhaps through Personal or Rift Quests?

Aside from acquiring the skill, Alex was surprised to see that he used less mana when he consciously activated the skill compared to his sloppy mana infusion. It seemed that the use of a skill through the System was more efficient than the original way he taught himself. Alex resolved to study the use of skills more when he was back home.

Was there a difference between using the skill granted by the system and using the shoddy version I was creating when I earned it?

He noted that he could choose to do one or the other. It was still possible to perform the action as he had before without actually activating the skill. At the point he was at, though, if it was a decision between using his version of the movement ability or using the system-granted version, it seemed like a no-brainer.

The System version was quicker to activate, easier to control, and more efficient with his mana. But Alex couldn’t help but think that it came too easily. He’d always heard those motivational sayings along the lines of “most things in life worth having, didn’t come easily.” While it usually sucked to hear, especially when you were going through something hard, he’d always been one to generally agree with the sentiment.

So, what’s the difference between the two?

While Alex knew that things would be much easier if he had someone to answer these questions, he found it fun to experiment and test the mana himself.

This same stubborn desire to test his skills and abilities almost caused a grave issue during one of his fights with the wolves.

Alex had begun to get in the rhythm of using the movement skill to continually outpace the Wild Wolf while kiting it and pelting it with mana darts from his wand. This was effective, though it took most of his mana pool to take down a single wolf. Depending on how things went, it took nearly an hour within the Rift for his mana to recharge. This left him time to brainstorm new tests and reflect on the previous fight.

He’d begun to try and cut down on his use of [Empowered Step], curious to see if he could alternate or swap easily between normal dodging and his skill-assisted movement. It worked well and saved him a good chunk of mana in the first fight that he tried it.

The second fight was where he almost had issues. He continued to alternate between monitoring his surroundings, pelting the wolf, and keeping his distance. This is when he wanted to test something from his fights with the boars. Rather than dodging back early to keep distance, he wondered if he could wait until the last minute to activate his [Empowered Step] to conserve the amount of time he was moving and hopefully get off another shot with his wand.

The wolf almost bit off his right leg as he tried.

The wolf lunged and closed its jaws where Alex had been a moment before. The [Empowered Step] safely moved him out of the wolf's path; however, to Alex’s surprise, the wolf hunched its upper body and sprang forward again. It was this second launch that had almost allowed the wolf’s jaw to close sideways around his knee and sink in its teeth.

It was more like he fell to the side than dodged the follow-up lunge. While on the ground, he let out a yelp and raised his wand. He pumped as much mana as he could afford into two shots and let the mana bolts fly. The close-range effect was devastating. As the first shot connected just behind its head, blood sprayed onto Alex’s hand. The thought hadn’t even occurred to him to readjust on the second shot; they were so close he just let the second bolt rip from the wand with as much power as he could push infuse into it. It hit the wolf just behind the eye and caused gruesome damage to the beast’s skull.

After the desperate scramble and a very sloppy finish to the fight, Alex decided to save any more of the testing for practice and sparring matches. It served as a real reminder for him that things could go horribly wrong in the Rifts, and he’d have little to no help. He had no way to heal or mend wounds and other than the Guild App, there was no record of knowledge of him being in this Rift.

Alex played out the rest of his wolf fights with caution and kept plenty of distance between himself and the wolves.

He’d been surprised when the Personal Quest Reward appeared in his vision.

Alex was unsure of what to make of the reward name and decided that he’d take a closer look once he was somewhere safe. For the time being, Alex dismissed the System window and began to make his way out of the Rift.

He was a bit ahead of his self imposed deadline by this time, but he didn’t see much of a need to continue fighting at the moment. Alex was wound tight, and now that he was almost at the end of his allotted training period, he felt his mind begging to relax.

A nice hot shower and a big chicken sandwich.

His mouth began salivating as he thought of the food and comfort of his home. Thanks to his camping provisions, he’d been eating Meals Ready to Eat for the last week; some real food sounded delicious.

As Alex walked back down the gravel driveway toward his car, he thought back on his last two days in the Common Rift. While he did, he kept an eye out for the mysterious man in the woods who had taken his payment upon entry.

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The wolves were a significant challenge. They were higher level than the boars and much more cunning. The first few fights pushed Alex hard.

He gained a lot in the two days: another level, several more Mana Stones, and more experience in combat. This didn’t even take into account his strange Rift Reward. Overall, Alex felt very satisfied with his five-day training stint.

Once he was safe and in his car once again, he eagerly looked at his Personal Quest windows.