Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG Progression Fantasy

Chapter 14: Safety?

Heading back into the wilderness stressed me out a bit more than I’d have liked to admit. I was constantly throwing nervous glances around me and making sure I had an exact knowledge of how to get back to town if things went badly. I knew that we were close enough to the walls that adventurers should have been taking out anything dangerous nearby – when I got my Class, we had to go way far out to start finding high-Level monsters that hadn’t been killed yet – but logic didn’t quell fear.

Breathing heavily, I released puff after puff of Noxious Grasp to try and calm myself down. Erani, who was walking alongside me, glanced over and noticed the few small wisps of smoke rising from my body.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, it’s just a Spell I’m practicing,” I reassured her, “Don’t worry about it. It only affects things I’m physically touching.”

“Well, yeah, I knew it was a Spell, I was wondering what its name was.”

“Noxious Grasp. Why, do you recognize it or something?”

“No, I was actually asking because I didn’t recognize it.” She looked down thoughtfully as we walked, muttering “Noxious Grasp… Noxious Grasp…” before looking back up and saying “Yeah, I can’t think of a single Class that gets that Spell in the early Levels.”

“Uh-”

“S-Sorry!” She waved her hands in front of herself, “I didn’t mean to imply you were low-Level, I just assumed, since you were running from the Banestinger and seem poor and… Shit, sorry again! That’s a rude thing to say…”

I laughed, interrupting her spiel. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not high-Level. Only Level 3.”

She put a hand to her chest. “Oh, thank the gods. You know how those high-Leveled Classers can act about disrespect. I always get super nervous around them and– wait. Level 3? What were you doing out there in the forest all alone? And seriously, what Class do you have? I’d like to think I know the basic Spells that most Classes get, so yours has got to be rare.

“Uh… I can answer the first question, but honestly I’d rather not answer the second. I don’t think I’d get into any trouble, but my Class is… pretty weird, and I just don’t want any extra attention.” I explained how I got lost in the forest and eventually found my way to Odensville.

“Shit,” she said after I finished, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

There was a pause in the conversation while we walked, the only sound to accompany us our boots crunching over the dirt road.

“So,” Erani eventually said, “this Class of yours. I know you don’t want to say much about it, but you said it’s rare? Have you checked the library for anything on it?”

“Well, I haven’t exactly gotten the chance to. I was already lost in the woods when I got it, and now that I finally got back, I’m just trying to earn some money to survive. If I get a good bit from this job, I’ll probably take some time afterward to look around.”

“Yeah, well, if you don’t find anything, come talk to me. I have a sister out in Carth that does research for a college, and I’d be willing to bet she – and the college – would be willing to pay to be able to note down any information you have on it.” She turned and looked down at the ground. “Oh! Here’s one of the plants we’re looking for. ‘Snapjaw Ficus: 8 copper.’” She bent over and picked a small leafy plant sprouting from the ground, putting it into a bag slung across her shoulder.

“Nice,” I nodded. “Oh, and thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind. Speaking of Classes, by the way, what Level are you? You’ve gotta be pretty powerful for your Firebolts to be Ranked highly enough to have hurt the Banestinger.”

“Oh, I’m not that high Level, just Level 8. Well, I’m actually Level 9, after the Banestinger fight. It’s just that my Class is Sorcerer, so I get a free Spell Rank every 2 Levels. It doesn’t cost any Spell XP, and it doesn’t raise the cost of my next Rank at all. So, right now, Firebolt is Rank 9, but I’ve gotten 4 free Ranks on it from Leveling up. So to get it to Rank 10 only actually costs as much as getting a Spell to Rank 6. The free Ranks also don’t count towards the Soft Cap, which is nice.”

“Oh? So, if your XP requirement and Soft Cap are being treated as though the Spell’s Rank 5, then that means you haven’t pushed past the Soft Cap at all, right?”

She sighed. “Yeah… it’s not like I refuse to train, or anything. I was actually a bit ahead of the Soft Cap for a while, but it’s caught up to me by now. It’s just that… Well, I don’t know which of the three benefits I want to choose at Rank 10! I’ve been researching different paths and builds recommended by the pros, but there are so many options. Everyone makes the build that they’re teaching sound like the best one! I mean, I’ve already chosen Firebolt for my first Spell, so I’m at least restricted to builds that use it, but it’s the most common first Spell choice, anyway, so it’s not like I’m narrowing my options down much. The generally accepted path is Ranking it into Explosive Firebolt at Rank 10 and then choosing Ray of Frost for your second Spell – that’s what Damia Nortwe’s DPS Sorcery recommends – but then I’ve also seen a newer build cropping up, taking Extended Firebolt for the extra range, and then choosing Mana Geyser for your second Spell and going down more of a long-range sniping route; apparently there have been reports of dozens of Gold-Degree adventurers cropping up using that exact method! But then, Pors Larn in Stunning Sorcerers said that both of those builds are wrong, and that mixing the two by going Explosive Firebolt into Mana Geyser was the actual correct choice! And those are just the more popular opinions! Wilin Gelly said that– wait, I’m sorry, I’m rambling right now. You have no idea who these people are,” she chuckled nervously.

I laughed. “You’re right that I don’t know who they are, but don’t worry about talking too much. I think it’s cute.”

“What?”

“I mean, what can I say? Intelligence is attractive.”

“Are you… flirting with me?”

“Absolutely,” I nodded.

She blinked, obviously not expecting such a bold admission. “Well, thank you for the compliment.” She turned away and kept walking a bit faster, but I could see her blushing.

Yeah, I definitely missed just being able to have fun and talk to people. Honestly, five days of near-death experiences put quite a lot of things in perspective, including things like getting embarrassed by admissions of attraction. At the end of the day, there weren’t actually any consequences if she didn’t reciprocate. If she didn’t like me, she didn’t like me; keeping her from knowing I was attracted to her wouldn’t change that.

“So,” I started up another conversation, “what’s so special about this knife, anyway? You seem to be really set on getting it back. Is it super expensive, or something?”

“Well, yes, it is expensive – it’s made of Royal Steel, after all – but that’s not the main reason. I really don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’m well-off enough that losing it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. It just holds sentimental value. My sister – the one in Carth – is an Enchanter along with being a researcher for the college, and that knife was the first item she Enchanted. She made it as a gift for me, so it would be quite a shame if I lost it.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry again for throwing it,” I chuckled awkwardly. “What’s it Enchanted with?”

“‘What’s it Enchanted with?’ Shouldn’t you know? You’re the one who threw it,” she laughed.

“Huh? I didn’t notice any… Oh!” I laughed, surprised I didn’t realize earlier. “Yeah, it’s Enchanted to be able to be used by Magic-Type Classes.” Normal weapons couldn’t be used by anyone with a Magic-Type Class, but there was a relatively simple Enchantment that would allow this rule to be bypassed. I’d completely forgotten about it when I grabbed the knife. “I’m pretty unfamiliar with Enchantments. Didn’t even think of that.”

She giggled at my explanation. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. It’s more that I’m overly familiar with Enchantments than you being underfamiliar. Oh, here’s another ingredient for the basket! ‘Fiddleworm Mushroom: 4 copper.’”

“Nice. How much do we have so far?”

“Uh…” she fingered through her bag of ingredients. “It looks like 32 copper’s worth? So 16 for each of us.”

“Sounds good. 16 copper in just a few hours, seems like we’ve got a nice, profitable morning going on here.” My Mana hit full again, so I let off another second of Noxious Grasp, wisps of mist rising off my fingers.

“You’ve been practicing that Spell for a while now,” Erani said, looking at my smoking hands. “Don’t you have a headache?”

“No, not really. Honestly, I trained so heavily when I was lost that I’ve gotten to the point where I can just ignore it and train subconsciously. At this point, it actually feels a bit weird to not cast something every minute or so.”

“Good gods,” she laughed. “Every minute? I could never.”

“I mean, I could never do the amount of research and planning on every single choice I make. Even if I had the resources, I doubt I’d read an entire book dedicated to a single Spell choice, let alone multiple.” I shrugged. “I think we just each have our own strengths.”

“Yeah, I guess. Well, still, it’s got to be a pretty high Rank if you’ve been practicing that diligently. What’s it at?”

“Oh, just Rank 5, though it’s about halfway to 6.”

“Huh? That’s it? If you literally aren’t taking breaks, shouldn’t it be higher? Or are you practicing another Spell, too?”

“I mean, I just now got my second Spell, but I haven’t been practicing that one much at all, since I want to try and focus on getting my main Spell up to Rank 10 first. I think the discrepancy here is just from you forgetting that I’ve had my Class for five days,” I laughed.

“Oh, yeah,” she chuckled. “Well, in that case, Rank 5 is kind of insane, especially when it’s so far past your Soft Cap.”

“Well, you know me, always doing insanely awesome stuff,” I joked.

“I literally don’t know you,” she laughed. “But anyway, are you ready for your Spell to hit Rank 10?”

“What, like, mentally? I don’t think I’m going to faint out of surprise when it happens, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, as in, do you have a Spell Crystal? You said you were broke before, are you sure you can afford one?”

“Uh… Spell Crystal?”

“Yeah, you know, those gems you need to get to every tenth Rank in a Spell?”

“What? I haven’t heard of them.”

“Oh, well I guess it makes sense if you never actually anticipated getting a Magic-Type Class. Pretty much, in addition to the regular Spell XP cost for the tenth Rank in a Spell, you also have to use a Spell Crystal that shares the Spell’s School. So you’d need a Fire Spell Crystal to Rank a Fire-School Spell, or a Divine Spell Crystal for a Divine-School Spell. Totally consumes the crystal in the process, though, so they’re pretty expensive. Only talented crafters can make them, and to make them you need some ingredients that can be really scarce, too. I think there are some shops in town that sell them, but due to each type of Spell Crystal requiring different materials, they all cost different amounts and vary from location to location, so you’d need to check their prices to see what you’d need to pay for your Spell.”

“Well, shit.” It seemed like I’d have to get a decent bit of money soon, or my progress with Noxious Grasp would start to stagnate. Of course, I could always just Rank up Crippling Chill if I hit Rank 10 with Noxious Grasp, but that was only a temporary solution – eventually, I’d hit 10 with Crippling Chill, too. I needed to find a decent way to make some money. “Well, to answer your question, no, I’m apparently absolutely not ready for my Spell to hit Rank 10,” I laughed.

She snorted at my answer. “Well hopefully you can figure it out. Remember that my offer about my sister in Carth still stands. That’d probably get you a bit of money, although I’d need some time to get the logistics planned out and let her know you’re coming.”

I took a moment to think about it as we continued to walk, looking for her knife and some more of those alchemy ingredients. I really knew nothing about this whole Minute Mage thing, and I seriously doubted I’d find anything about it in the library. However, maybe I could find something on it if I spoke to a dedicated researcher. After all, my Trailblazer Title only said that there was nobody else currently alive who had the Class, nothing about people in the past. Obviously, the monetary reward was also tempting.

Now, there was also the problem of going public with the fact that I could – on some level – control the flow of time. Sure, most people might not care that much, but maybe there was some lord or king in a distant land that would think my abilities could be useful and try to kidnap me. The way I was now, I could at least be certain that nobody was hunting me down and I’d be left alone.

“Do you think your sister could keep my identity private when I give the information?” I asked. “I really don’t want any unnecessary attention.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely. That’s standard practice to begin with, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t do it with you.”

Yeah, that pretty much sealed the deal there. Who didn’t like free money? “Okay, let’s do it. How long do you think it’ll take to set everything up?”

“Oh, I’m not sure, it really depends. Maybe a week? I’ll keep in touch, though.”

“Sounds good.” I held out a hand to shake.

She took it. “I’d say it’s a pleasure doing business with you, but you know the saying about mixing business and pleasure.”

I laughed. “I’m willing to ignore that saying if you are.”

She rolled her eyes, but also smiled pretty hard at my line, eventually even offering me a salacious wink after what seemed to be a second’s deliberation.

I chuckled and kept walking, but stopped when I stepped on something hard. I looked down at what I’d stepped on. “Oh, your knife.”

“Huh, yeah, there it is.” Erani bent over and picked up the silver tool lying in the dirt. She looked over it for a second, cleaned it off, and then slipped it into its sheath on her belt. “That was anticlimactic.”

I laughed. “It sure was. But hey, after the week I’ve had, I’m glad to see something get resolved without a fight where I almost die. Ready to head back?”

“Sure. I’ve got some work to do regarding our deal.”

Yep. It felt good to finally have some time with nothing actively trying to hunt me down. I could relax and take things slowly. No more time pressure.