Now that the sun was up, Alan was better able to take stock of his plants. Everything was recovering nicely from the destruction caused by the giant armadillo boss. Those that had been damaged were almost fully recovered, and the ones he had replaced had small plants growing in their stead.
His fruit trees were also heavy with produce, and he made sure to collect plenty of apples and oranges. He also now had cherries and plums to go with them. There were bananas and figs as well, but he left them for now. He didn’t even know how to eat a fig and bananas were not his favorite on their own. They were great in smoothies though.
His alchemy plants were also doing well, and he harvested seeds from them and planted some more. With his spell, he hopefully wouldn’t need to brew the potion anymore, but if he wanted to level up his alchemy skill he would need the ingredients.
His last stop was his test plants. These were seeds he had planted inside of some basic magical circles he had drawn using ground up quartz rock. He had seen something similar used in a dungeon early on, and the tree inside the diagram had produced stat boosting fruits. Admittedly, that circle had been orders of magnitude more complicated than his own, but he had wanted to see what would happen.
So far, the answer was, nothing. He had planted some blueberries, blackberries, the new keil berries, an apple core, and some orange seeds inside the circles. All of them had long sprouted and grown into mature plants, but as of yet they had not produced any fruits. That was until now.
The apple and orange trees were still bare of produce, but then again, the trees had taken longer to fruit without the circles as well. The berry bushes all had plenty of delicious looking fruit, though. Sadly, they appeared normal, not like the magical orbs he’d collected from the dungeon tree.
Using herbology, he could tell they were the normal fruit, but identify said they were mana-infused. Using his aura reading, these berries were like beacons in the dark. The rest of the plant matter was normal, but the berries must contain an incredible amount of mana for how brightly they shone.
For a long time now, Alan had been infusing mana into Two Socks’ food. When he did, those foods had a very mild glow to his senses. These berries were blazing with energy. The mana infused into these berries must be at least ten times greater, and possibly more like fifty or a hundred.
“Tamee, if I eat mana infused food, will that hurt me in any way?” Alan didn’t think it would be a problem, but it never hurt to be careful.
“No, and if there is enough mana in them it can actually help to replenish your pools. Not nearly as much as a potion made by an alchemist, but some. If you think about it, that is kind of what alchemy does, infuse mana into something edible.” After learning about how healing potions were made, he knew that edible was being used liberally.
Pulling a small clump of blueberries off of the bush, it was the fruit Alan began the tutorial with, he popped them in his mouth. His taste buds were assaulted with a delicious sweetness, but it was nothing different from normal. After swallowing, he could detect some mana moving into his body. As Tamee had said, it seemed to be suffusing him with energy, but his health, mana, and stamina pools were already full. After a few seconds the mana simply faded away.
It didn’t seem like there was much use for his initial experiment, until he thought about his wolf friend. These would provide him quite a boost of mana, and without Alan needing to do anything. This could provide a significant boost to Two Socks’ growth.
Now that he had proof that the magical circles could work on his plants, he got started on a second round of experiments. In his time working with Dracon, he had learned a number of basic magical circles. The one he had already used was a simple mana concentration diagram. It was a base component to many other circles, because they almost all were mana hogs.
He didn’t have enough quartz powder to draw any more circles, but he still had a collection of stones in his ring that he could grind up. He spent the next two hours doing just that. By the end, he had a nice cone of sparkly white powder in his storage, and his pile of quartz was down to only a few rocks.
Alan estimated he had enough powder for three or four circles. Thinking back on the ones he knew, it was difficult to decide on which to try. He discarded the ones for summonings, he didn’t want to mess around with those. He also got rid of the one he learned to block teleportation, he didn’t see how that would have any effect on the plants. As he went through the list he realized that none of them seemed suited to enhancing plants.
It made sense, farming was something usually done by serfs. Alan disliked that word, but he didn’t know what else to call them, since ‘classless people’ didn’t sound much better. Magical diagrams were performed by mages, and usually by ones of a higher grade than Alan. They probably didn’t spend much time thinking about how to improve farming.
Whatever the reason, the fact was that all of the circles he had learned already had a function, and that function didn’t include plants. The only circle he had seen before that was designed for plants was the one in the mage dungeon, and he had no hope of duplicating its complexity as he was now.
So, he could either give up on his idea or he could roll up his sleeves and get creative. Quit was a word that had long ago been removed from his vocabulary. He couldn’t use the circles he already knew, at least as he knew them now. Drawing random diagrams was not an option. Not only would it be inefficient since it seemed to take a long time for the plants to start producing, but chances are his diagrams would be worthless and perhaps even harmful.
Another option was to combine magical circles with the other type of mana drawing he knew. In addition to learning how to use mana reinforcement to enchant objects, Alan’s mentor had also taught him how to inscribe runes on objects. Perhaps he could merge the two.
The first hour he spent at this was thrilling for Tamee. It consisted of him sitting with his back against his house, staring into the distance and thinking deep thoughts. The most exciting thing that happened was he occasionally ate some fruit.
The second hour saw him drawing in the dirt. He didn’t use his precious supply of quartz powder, he just wanted to see with his eyes what the designs looked like. Tamee finally had to interrupt to ask what he was doing. His answer left her impressed, but also skeptical.
“You know that magical diagrams are like an art form combined with high level mathematics, right?”
“Good thing I’m a genius then.” Alan was not, in fact, a genius. At least he’d never considered himself one. But what he did have was a great memory, a good imagination, and a willingness to work through failure. These were the traits that had allowed him to succeed in his academic endeavours, and they also had helped in other aspects of his life. The ability to accept failure as a probable outcome, but still be willing to put in the work to try, was sadly something that too many people lacked. Failure was not a bad thing, as long as you didn’t let it stand. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
The third hour was more drawing, but he got a stick for this and tried to make them closer to real size. He felt like he was onto something, and each iteration got closer and closer to his vision. It was almost time to try it out.
Having finalized his first set of designs, it was time to pick a fruit. It probably didn’t matter, but he had the time and the resources, so why not have fun with it. He didn’t want to use any of the trees, as these seemed to take longer to develop. Since these diagrams would be experimental, he wanted something that would produce results quickly.
So finally, four hours after starting, Alan laid down his first circle. It used the same two concentric circles as the originals, these would gather the mana, but there was a third circle inside of them. All of the mana the outer circles collected would be refined as it passed through the third. Between the third and second circles he used a series of lines to link the inner and outer arcs. Determining how these lines should be arranged was the part that had taken so long.
This first diagram was supposed to mimic his engraving for heaviness. He wasn’t sure what effect that would have on the fruit, but that's what trials were for. The lines he used were a loose approximation for his rune if you tried to wrap it around something. It was also repeated multiple times around the inner circle.
There were changes he had been forced to make, but based on his limited experience, he thought it should work. After finishing his drawing, he placed a raspberry in the center. His first experiment was at least a partial success. The circle hadn’t blown up or dissolved him, at least.
His second diagram also had three circles and was his interpretation of the rune for fire. He wasn’t sure how well that would work on a plant, but he decided to try it out. That circle got strawberries. The final magical circle was based on an engraving to improve the durability of an item. It would be a good joke if he ended up with berries you couldn’t bite through. That one got goji berries.
While he was working on his farm, he noticed his potato plants were doing well. He dug them up and split the potatoes apart before replanting them. He did store a few for himself.
The carrots also seemed to be doing well, but when he dug those up, he was baffled to find no carrot. He had taken the tops of the carrots that Thadrick had cut off while preparing food and planted them in the soil.
He had been led to believe this would let him regrow the carrot, but the root part, the part you eat, hadn’t grown. The green on the top, however, had. Looking closer he noticed that this part had seeds on it. Collecting the seeds he then planted those. Maybe that would give him carrots.
This had been a good day of farming, but it was time for something else. He started with a bath in the stream. He was filthier than he had realized, his skin and clothes were covered in a fine layer of ash, most likely from the burned forest of Ashford Hills. Two Socks showed up while he was cleaning.
The wolf must have been picking up on Alan’s habits, because he too jumped into the stream and started splashing around. He rolled in the shallows before swimming out to the deeper sections. When he paddled back over to his claimed human, Alan noticed some blood around his muzzle. A little rubbing was able to remove most of it. Done with their wash, they laid down next to each other in the grass and let the sun dry them off.
The tall grass was not all that comfortable to lie on, but they made it work. Maybe he should see about cutting some down to try and make a lawn. As Alan thought that, he realized that he might have become too domesticated.
He was here with a mission. His house and farm were nice, but they were temporary. At some point, and he was no longer sure when due to the dungeon time issues, Alan would leave this behind and move up to the next tier. What he had was good enough for his needs now, he should focus back on what was more important, getting stronger.
His mentor had suggested he wait a whole day before trying to upgrade his second class, but Alan decided he was recovered enough. After the first upgrade, the rest were supposed to be much easier. His aura had already undergone its major transformations. After this there should only be some minor changes.
Alan returned to his house and resumed the lotus position, but not before showing Two Socks the new mana infused fruits. Once the wolf saw them he had attacked the berries with a passion. Alan had needed to physically pull him away, and had then tried to impress upon him the concept of moderation. He wasn’t sure how successful he had been, but Alan was impatient to resume his upgrades, so he counted it as good enough.
There were two rare class stones to choose from. One was Sorcerer and the other was Medicine Man. Interestingly, neither were given to him by the Network. One was a prize from his mentor, and the other loot from killing an evil drow. That drow had caused immense harm to the woman he was probably in love with, but he didn’t hold that against the stone.
If he continued by going in the order he had received them, sorcerer was first. Also, if he was being honest, it sounded cooler than medicine man. Once again he was prompted if he wanted to upgrade his class, and he accepted.
His senses were already focused on his body, but he didn’t notice many new tendrils. This was to be expected, most of the work on his aura had been done with his first class. He smoothed out a few minor problems, but this time the aura transition was relaxing. Then he was inundated with the knowledge of his class.
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Sorcerer came with both a new talent and an ability, just like his last upgrade. The talent was interesting, because, unlike backstab for Phantom, this talent was not one he could get as just a mage. It was Mana Lacing, and he already knew what it did. When his mentor had given him this stone, he had told him a couple of the talents he might receive. He had also told him about the abilities.
Mana lacing would improve his ability to weave strands of mana together, be it with the same mana or different types. This would make it easier for him to modify his spells, and reduce the casting time for the spells he knew.
The ability was also one he had been told about, but his class came with the knowledge of the ability as well. Mana Lode, like Fade, was more a type of passive ability. When activated, Alan’s aura would draw in mana from his surroundings. The effect, assuming there was enough energy in the area, was that he would regain mana at twice his normal rate for ten minutes. There was also a cooldown of twenty minutes for the ability, so he couldn’t have it running all the time.
He knew that in addition to these new abilities, the class should allow him to sense mana in greater detail. No longer would his spells be limited to the six basic types of mana. He was eager to play around with that, but right now his head was getting that fuzzy feeling again. It wasn’t near as bad as before, but he would need to take it easy for a little bit.
It was starting to get dark anyway, so it was a good time for dinner. Alan was actually feeling pretty hungry today. He hadn’t exerted himself all that much physically, but the strain of the night before must have stressed his body.
He decided to celebrate his class upgrades by getting fancy with his dinner. Alan cut up a couple of the potatoes he had saved from earlier and threw them in his small pot. He had actually forgotten he had this thing. It had been a purchase from the first trip into the dwarven mine. The store’s owner, Folca, had helped him pick out some items to improve his camp life. Despite this, Alan had been cooking like a caveman, simply grilling his meat.
He filled up the pot using conjure water, which he had modified to be a variable spell and his small pot only took a few mana. His new talent, mana lacing, was already having an effect. Instead of working to form the spell, it almost leapt together. Next he cut up some meat and added some of the spices he had also purchased.
Then Alan sat down and waited as the soup simmered over the fire. It was a nice moment of relaxation, but his sense of urgency got the better of him. Alan decided to try out his new access to mana, even if his senses weren’t at their best.
Sending his perception inside, he found his mana pool. Next he focused in on one particular strand. Previously, he had been able to see six smaller strands that wove together to form the large non-differentiated mana. His aura reading skill had not helped much with this facet of mana and energy.
Now he could see the six thick strands, but wrapped around and along them were many more thinner strands. This was not the only change he found. If he focused in on one of the light strands, he could see even smaller strands that formed it. He wasn’t quite able to identify any of these other mana strings, but he could see them. Soon he would be able to control them and after that came crafting new spells.
His interior examinations occupied him long enough for the soup to finish. The broth was a little thin, he really needed a stock, not just water, but it was tasty enough and a nice change from his usual steaks.
After cleaning his dishes in the stream, he was ready for his other rare class. Once again ensconced in his house, he absorbed the Medicine Man stone. He went through an evolution that was almost identical to the last one.
It seemed that rare stones all gave a talent and an ability. This time he earned the talent Concocting and the ability Healer’s Mark. Concocting sounded appropriate for a medicine man, but it was not something Alan had heard of. It probably had something to do with making potions.
Healer’s Mark, at first, seemed to be of little use to him. It allowed him to place a mark on the aura of up to ten other people that would last up to half a day. Those being marked had to be willing to accept it, but he didn’t see any reason why someone would object.
Those marked would receive a twenty percent boost on any healing spells cast on them, and any healing potions would be fifty percent more effective. He could only have ten people marked at a time, but he could mark and unmark people at will. Well, almost. There was a five minute cooldown after removing a mark before he could place that one again.
Unfortunately, he was unable to mark himself, which is what made it seem worthless for him. Sure, maybe in the future when he connected with other humans in the tutorial it might be more useful, but for the moment it would sit unused. However, as he reflected on his recent experiences, he had been spending a lot of time in dungeons with other people. Maybe it would still have a use.
Alan had needed a little time after upgrading to sorcerer, but he felt fine almost immediately after this upgrade. Perhaps his body was getting used to the changes. Now what would Alan do next? He had used his three rare stones, but he still had two uncommons.
Dimachari and Stalker, upgrades to his fighter and hunter classes, respectively, both sounded good. But, they were only uncommon. Perhaps he should hold out and see if he could earn rare or maybe even epic versions instead. He was also missing stones for his guardian, scholar, and seeker classes. Even if he upgraded the two he currently could, he still wouldn’t be able to progress his classes until he managed to find stones for the other three.
Deciding to put off the issue for future Alan, he began his nightly ritual. It had been a while since he had seen to his equipment, or worked on sensing his spewn’s aura. Once he could accomplish that feat, he would be able to add a rune for heaviness to it that would greatly increase its effectiveness as a mace.
Sadly, he still wasn’t there. It was close, he could get hints of the energy patterns of the weapon, but it wasn’t enough to enhance it yet. His pugio and seax, however, he could now see their aura clearly. Perhaps it was time to engrave those. But not tonight.
With all of the time he had potentially lost staying too long in various dungeons, it was impossible to know how much time was left before the third tier opened up. Tamee wouldn’t tell him and there was no clock feature that he could find. It was likely that he was over half way through, and it was possible there was less than a week to go.
All of that meant that he needed to maximize his time in dungeons. He needed another night’s sleep to make sure he was at top form, but then he would set off early to get to work. Alan had managed the dungeons just fine so far, so it should be even easier now that he had a few opal classes. Even his weapons had served him well enough so far, although his daggers were more of an after thought these days, now that he had the impressive spewn.
Even though he was an opal class, he would still not be able to give up on cultivation. Pixel’s aura had shown how much of a change there was from white to red, and his pathways would need to be strong enough to cope. That didn’t even count the minor change that would happen when he upgraded to diamond.
That was why, when he woke up early the next day, before the sun rose, he did not immediately set out for the next dungeon. Instead, Alan was performing yoga, stretching out his newly empowered muscles and also stretching his aura at the same time. He had found Tai Chi more conducive to cultivation, but he felt the need to limber up and take the measure of his body.
After that was taken care of, he made a quick circuit through his farm, checking on its progress. The three new circles had tiny sprouts in them, so at least the diagrams hadn’t sterilized the seeds.
Two Socks had come home and lay down next to him at some point in the night, and he had not approved of the early hour Alan was up. However, he seemed to sense that Alan was about to run off again and he rubbed up against him for some companionship before they were separated again.
This had been cute when he was still dog sized, but he seemed to have grown another couple of centimeters overnight and his head was almost up to Alan’s chin. His attempts to rub up against him almost knocked Alan over. It was worth it though, having a physical friend he could interact with helped keep him sane.
Taking off toward the church ruins he had found before, he set a brisk pace. He had a much larger stamina pool now and he was ready to use it. He was curious what challenge awaited him in the broken temple, and he hoped his reward was another class stone. The sooner he could resume his leveling, the better.
He arrived at the dungeon shortly before the sun should finally be rising behind the mountains. After checking everything was ready, he was about to step in when Tamee suddenly asked him to wait.
“You may want to hold off on going in, just until the sun rises.”
Such a warning was not like Tamee, and could even be breaking the rules she had to live under. “Is there something wrong with the dungeon?” To risk a punishment from whatever was running the tutorial, which was not actually the Network, there must be a serious issue. Her next words didn’t clear anything up.
“No, it is nothing like that. I just think it would be better if you hung around here for a little bit. Maybe you could tell me about your newest class. I have never heard of a medicine man before.”
If it wasn’t a danger with the dungeon, then he wasn’t sure what was going on. He would just have to trust her judgement. And, in the end, it would only cost him some time if she was simply being weird.
Deciding to indulge her, he reflected on what he felt. “You know how important my healing spell has been to me, and how excited I was when I made the regrowth one. You can imagine how I felt when I saw that not only did I gain a talent and an ability with this class, but it also gave me a new spell, and a rare one at that. Healing Waters allows me to change water into a healing potion in the moment I pour it down someone’s throat.
“It won’t let me create a bunch ahead of time, it has to happen in the moment, but it acts as a really good potion and will restore over a hundred hit points of health, and that's for the same amount of mana as my current healing spell. The trade off is that I have to have water, and I have to physically pour it down their throat. That is not going to be super helpful in combat, but combined with healer’s mark it will let me deal with a lot of injuries after the battle is over.”
Tamee now sounded genuinely interested, “do you have an idea of how future skills or talents might work with it?”
“Well, from what I have seen so far, and the sense I get from it, it will be focused on physical methods of healing. Whether that will be creating potions and other medicines ahead of time, or instantly making them like with my new spell, I couldn’t say. Overall though, I think it will be useful. I was already happy with my healer class, and this adds a little bit to it.”
The eastern sky was lighting up in earnest now, the sun must be starting to rise. The Tutorial agreed, because he heard Tamee’s voice again. This time, though, it wasn’t in his head, it was the broadcast version she used for official messages.
Well done and good job everyone! You are now three quarters of the way through tier two, and with only a week left to prepare, it’s time you found out what awaits you. Unlike at the end of tier one, there will not be a boss for you to vanquish. However, only the top recruit, and their chosen party, will be able to pass on.
In exactly one week, a path will appear at the northern end of your zone. The selected party will be able to pass through and begin their challenge in tier three. Everyone who is not part of the elite group will be placed in stasis. For those who will not advance, hopefully your comrades are successful in tier three because whichever race manages to win their zone will also be able to bring some of their frozen members back to continue to assist them.
What is the challenge, you might ask. In tier three, four adjacent zones, each containing a different race, will share the same area. In this area you will find a medium-sized village. Your task is to win over the mayor, or to conquer the town.
Whichever group can conclusively secure control of the village will win the zone. To secure control, you must either enter into an agreement with the mayor, become the mayor through popular opinion, or by killing the old one and taking their place. In addition, the winner must have the surrender of the other three parties vying for control or they must be killed.
A word of warning, this village can be of great use to the winning race in tier four, you may not want to destroy too much of it in the taking. This tier will last for three months. If you are wondering who the strongest person in your zone is, you will find you now have access to a leaderboard. Keep up the good work everyone!
Now Alan knew why she had wanted him to wait, and he knew what was in store for him. Just for kicks, he pulled up the leaderboard. Sure enough, Alan was number one. For a moment he had been irrationally afraid that he would find another name above his own.
“Well, Tamee, this is actually good news for me.”
She laughed, “I know. You have been worrying all along about how you would manage to compete against thousands of opponents by yourself. Instead, you will only be fighting against groups of no more than five. Is that a let down?
Alan joined in her laughter, “no, just a relief.”
“In all seriousness, though, do not be fooled. This will still be incredibly difficult. These will be the five best people out of those thousands. I can not see their progress, and I wouldn’t be able to tell you about it if I could, but they will be formidable. Of that I can assure you.”
Alan’s expression turned grim, “what do you think my chances are?”
“Well, I know I just said I can not see the other’s progress, but I can see yours. And it is rather impressive, let me tell you. I would guess your odds are somewhere between one in four and one in three.”
Those weren’t great odds, but they were better than he had any right to expect. He hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking on her part. “Well, I’m not going to get stronger just sitting here, it's time to run another dungeon.”
He heard an excitement in Tamee’s voice when she responded, “wait, I haven’t gotten to the best part yet. Because the competition will soon start between the races and not just within them, I am allowed to start showing ‘favoritism’.”
That sounded like a good thing, but Alan wasn’t sure what she meant, “what does favoritism look like?”
“Most of my restrictions have been lifted. I can’t do things like spy on others for you, or help you navigate through the dungeons here, but I can offer you advice and suggestions on things pertaining to tier three.”
That did sound like good news. Maybe he wouldn’t get the run around on his questions so often, anymore. Alan made sure to tell Tamee how excited he was. Even if he didn’t fully understand what it meant, she was clearly excited about it, so it paid for him to seem equally thrilled.
That was all something he could figure out after this dungeon, though. Whatever other plans he would make for the next tier, he would need to finish leveling up to opal before time ran out. He didn’t think there would be too many opportunities to gain more stones after tier two, and its plethora of dungeons, ended.
