Quest Completed: Magical Might II Reward Granted: +5 low-quality mana potions; +1 Tier I spell scroll; +1% Experience

Finally. It's taken me three weeks to reach that, and I finished [Bountiful Mana II] a little more than a week ago, which allowed me to take the Dungeon Quest back on before the timer ran out. Increasing my Magic Attribute really does become more difficult the higher it is, and that seems to start somewhat early.

When I completed that one and gained the 1% Experience needed to reach Level 1, I confirmed that there's got to be a hidden Attribute affecting Mana. Instead of acquiring +3 Mana, I acquired triple that.

I also acquired +5 Attribute Points, which I can apparently put into any Attribute I want. For now, I'm saving them up. While putting them into Magic or Mana Regeneration seems like a good idea immediately, I don't know if the former will count for a Quest and adding them would only make training those Attributes more difficult. So it would be better to hold off on adding them until after I've trained them to my limits.

Besides, if there are hidden Attributes, I might find that there's an even better one I can't see that I can add this stuff to – especially considering I've basically confirmed there's at least one. Adding an Attribute Point to Mana only increases it by 1 Mana, and adding one to Mana Regeneration only adds 0.001 Mana Regeneration. I already know there's an Attribute that adds 2 Mana, so that would be better. What if there are ones that affect Mana Regeneration or Magic more than the pure Attribute does?

So I've instead stuck to training, and it's been three weeks of boring repetition in order to train myself, which was frustrating. If it weren't for Lucas here to talk with me at times, I think I'd have gone insane. Up until this point, I've stuck to near our cave hideout, as no monsters seem to enter it. That made it easier to catch the squirrels in the beginning, but they've started to keep their distance, realizing this is the lair of a predator of theirs.

Fortunately, I figured out how to catch the fish using my magic. It mostly consists of freezing the water around them, then lifting the ice out through [Water Manipulation]. I tried using [Water Manipulation] to just pull a bubble of the fish out, but that's a lot harder than it seems. Especially since the fish can swim out of it, plopping back into the creek.

I'll figure out a way to stop that eventually.

Now that I've completed both of these Quests, I think I'm almost ready to set off into the cave and start seeing how my hunts go. As long as I don't travel too far and keep an eye on my Mana, things should be fine. In theory. I'm at nearly triple how much Magic I had before, so I'm hoping that's enough.

Before I set off, though, I want to do a couple of things. First, I want to bring my Tier II spells up a Level, which I don't think will be too difficult. Second, I'm going to use the spell scroll I earned from this Quest and the one I earned from [Elementalist Apprentice].

Third, and most importantly, I'm going to try to learn a spell that will hopefully help me out if the bears can still resist [Airbolt] with ease.

Before I do any of that, though, I pull up the Quests menu and set [Wizard Adept] to an active Quest. Since it's going to be the next thing that happens, I might as well set it active now rather than wait until I'm almost there and risk not qualifying for it.

Maybe I can swap the order of Tasks One and Two. Picking up the scroll I just earned, I learn it's for [Magic Needle]. Curious about why I earned another stitching spell, I activate the scroll.

Skill Acquired: Magic Needle Experience Acquired: +1%

Knowledge of the spell enters my mind, and I realize that I was mistaken. This isn't a stitching spell at all. I could probably alter it to become one, but it's not. Similar to [Magic Bolt], a [Magic Needle] is around six inches in length. However, it's much, much thinner, and with a pointed tip. Its purpose is to act as a swift-flying piercing attack.

Could I alter [Magic Bolt] to do something similar? There's more force behind a [Magic Bolt] than I'm assuming a [Magic Needle] would have, so if I can make [Magic Bolt] a piercing spell as well, that could improve my ability to fight.

Why didn't I think of this before?

Picking up the spell scroll from [Elementalist Apprentice], I examine its details. It's for [Earth Needle], which is why I hadn't learned it yet. If it's an attack, that's much better than a spell to help me stitch things up.

I'm not going to use the scroll right away, though. I can get more Experience out if I wait just a few moments.

Holding up a hand, I summon a [Magic Needle], the pale, white-blue spell forming above my palm. It costs me around 1.4 Mana at the moment, but I'll worry about decreasing its cost in the coming days. Dismissing the spell, I summon it a few more times, getting a feel for the magic itself.

Then I shift into using earth magic, summoning a stone needle around six inches long and just as thin as a normal needle, pointed at one end.

Skill Acquired: Stone Needle Experience Acquired: +1%

I'll use the scroll once I start to stall out in their Levels, using the information it gives me to boost [Magic Needle] as well. I can probably even use this to create an [Ice Needle].

Skill Acquired: Ice Needle Experience Acquired: +1%

Yeah, that was pretty easy. Wait, did I just casually try out a new spell without actually thinking? All I actually thought was that I could probably do that, and then… I did it. It's not like it's a huge change from other spells, though – it's literally swapping out earth or raw magic in a spell I already know in exchange for ice. It would be a huge difference if I went and created an ice spear.

"Your expression is so amusing right now," Lucas comments, drawing me out of my thoughts. "You've been casting so much magic the last month or so that you're now doing it out of habit. I take it those rewards weren't from some random Quest you took on without mentioning and were from [Magical Might II]?"

"Yeah," I answer. "So it's time to move on to stage two of preparing to hunt."

"Which is what?" He asks.

"A little bit of spell training," I answer. "Once I increase one of my elemental Tier II spells, the others will be easier since it's just applying the same adjustments to them, with potential slight modifications."

"Okay," he says. "Then you'll be heading out?"

"No," I answer. "Then I'll try to learn a spell that should help with the hunt, recover my magic, eat lunch, and then leave. Maybe three hours from now?"

"Awesome," he says. "Good luck."

Looking at what he's doing, I realize that he's not preparing an early lunch, as I'd thought he was doing. He has several of the glow fruits on the prep boulder, along with some roots, berries, and herbs. If he was cooking, he wouldn't have three things he's identified to me as reagents and one which is pretty obviously a reagent.

Hasn't he already exhausted all of our options? We've explored this cavern completely over the last few weeks, finding a total of seventeen reagents that grow here. Lucas has tried making potions using all of them, so I thought he was done. Is there even anything left to experiment with?

"Thanks," I say. "You're still trying to figure out a potion?"

"Yeah," he answers. "It could be I'm using the wrong ratio of ingredients, boiling for the wrong amount of time, or any number of things. Though we're almost out of usable ingredients from in here, if I don't want to just clear everything out."

I hadn't thought about trying out different ratios, temperatures, cook time, and whatever else he's probably come up with as something to adjust. Then again, I'm a wizard, not an alchemist. My thing is casting spells, not brewing potions.

All of that might become easier once he knows what the reagents' properties are. Neither of us want to try test them by consuming them, even if they don't say that they're toxic. Mystery effects aren't our idea of fun.

The only thing we're confident in the magical property of is the glow fruit, and we're both certain it will make us glow if we eat it. At least, Lucas still theorizes about that.

I drank a little of the juice of one while he was sleeping awhile back. Just a little bit of the juice. I did glow for a few minutes. I also have not informed him of this.

"So it's good that I'll be setting off soon and collecting more," I say. "It probably would be bad if we harvested everything in here, it wouldn't be able to grow back, right?"

"Some, yeah," he nods. "Thanks, Carter."

I nod, then get to work on improving [Firebolt]. The spell, at its core, is just a [Magic Bolt] made of fire magics instead of raw magics. All of my elemental bolts cost around 5 Mana or so to cast, and since they're low-Level, I know that the cost can be decreased. Or at least, I'm certain they can be.

Right now, it's better for me to work on decreasing costs than it is to improve strength. While both are equally important, decreasing the cost means I can cast more before running out of Mana.

Even though magic is simply us using our Mana to exert our will upon the world, there's still a basic structure to the spells. How good that structure is determines how efficient the spell is, in terms of retaining its strength, not leaking out Mana, and more. Over the last few weeks, I've actually looked at this spell a few times and made a few attempts at adjusting it.

It was a welcome break from just mindlessly casting spells and trying to push my limits with how big and strong I could make them without improving them. The reason I didn't want to work on improving them was because it would take away from raising my Magic Attribute. There's a difference between improving a spell's base strength and putting as much power in it as possible.

That research is why I'm confident I can succeed in changing it today, with plenty of time to make the adjustments to the others and recover my Mana before setting off.

Summoning a [Firebolt], I try to sense the flow of my Mana in it, how some of it leaks out of the spell, acting as waste. There's some loss in the casting itself, and some in its continued existence. Both of those contribute to its higher Mana cost.

Dismissing the [Firebolt], I summon another, feeling the loss of the Mana upon its casting. I dismiss it, then try out my thought on how to decrease that loss. When I cast the next [Firebolt], I find success.

Skill Improved: Firebolt is now Level 2 Experience Acquired: +2%

The spell now only costs me around 4.6 Mana to cast. That's around a ten percent improvement to its cost, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. I'm about to work on strengthening its structure so that it leaks less as well, therefore needing less Mana to continue until its limit is reached, but something catches my attention.

When a Quest has a progress that can be tracked, we can set for the tracker to be kept in our vision. It's just a little thing in the corner of it that's not much notice but easily checked without having to pull up the Quest itself, since that takes going through a couple of menus to do.

The Quest tracker for [Wizard Adept] didn't change from 40/50 Skill Levels in spells to 42/50 Skill Levels in spells when I brought [Firebolt] up to Level 2.

It went to 44/50 Skill Levels in spells.

Experience earned from Tier II spells isn't the only thing that's improved – their Levels count twice for Quests. All I need to do is bring [Firebolt] up to Level 3 and another up to Level 2 and I'll have [Wizard Adept].

Spending the time to look into [Firebolt] over the last few weeks was definitely worth it. It means I don't have to spend a few more weeks trying to earn this Trait.

Returning to the task at hand, I focus on improving the Mana retention of [Firebolt], and after a few minutes of experimentation, find success, bringing the spell cost down to around 4.4 Mana. It's a much smaller decrease, but it's still worth it. Decreasing the loss on cast will take me more studying, and I want to hurry out of here to stretch my legs and test things out.

Since I want to use [Airbolt] as a weapon against those bears, I pick it next over [Icebolt] and get to work, using the experience I gained from improving [Firebolt] and the slight knowledge I gained from the Levels to make the adjustments. There's some difference, of course, since one is of fire and one is of air, but having already found success with one, success with [Airbolt] is found soon after.

Upon receiving the notice for advancing it to Level 2, ten mana potions and a spell scroll form on the ground in front of me, another set of notifications appearing in my vision along with them.

Trait Acquired: Wizard Adept Attributes Acquired: +2 Mana, +0.002 Mana Regeneration, +2 Magic Trait Lost: Wizard Apprentice Attributes Acquired: -1 Mana, -0.001 Mana Regeneration, -1 Magic Quest Completed: Wizard Adept Reward Granted: 10 low-quality mana potions; 1 Tier II spell scroll; +2% Experience

So when we advance an Adventurer Trait to the next version, we lose the previous version and the Attributes it granted us. Looking at my Status, however, I find that it only removed the ones that I gained upon Acquiring the Trait, rather than those and the ones I gained from it through my sole Level.

I guess it makes sense we'd not be able to stack them. It is, after all, an improvement. Though I do find it a little weird that it doesn't simply upgrade the previous one instead, but maybe it's a quirk of how the System figures things?

It also looks like [Wizard Adept] has the same bonus as [Elementalist Apprentice]. Does that mean that each stage of it is one behind a more specialized set? I suppose it makes sense, seeing as wizards are apparently generalists.

Wait, +2% Experience, not +1% Experience? It was a Rank 2 Quest, does that mean the Rank of a Quest also affects the Experience gain? It's not like they give us a whole lot of Experience, so I'm a bit confused as to why, but I'm not going to think on it too hard. This isn't something I can just reason out.

Now that I have [Wizard Adept], I pull up the next Quest in the line.

Wizard Available Rank: 2 Requirements: Earn the [Wizard] Trait Reward: 10 medium-quality mana potions; 1 Tier III spell scroll Details: A proper wizard doesn't know just a few basic spells, but has greater magical might than the apprentices and adepts they once stood among the ranks of. To do so, you must prove your magical talent and interest by acquiring a total 100 Skill Levels in spells, with only Tier II+ spell Skills reaching Level 2+ counting towards this. Note: You have an affinity for this Quest

That is a huge increase in requirements. I'm going to have to spend a few months training my spells to earn it. Of that, I'm certain. The difficulty increase doesn't bother me, though. It would make sense that each one is more difficult than the last, including with an increasing difficulty. I'm not going to take it on at the moment because of that. All of my Quests now seem like they're things that will take awhile.

At least, all of the Quests I'm interested in. I may take on [Bountiful Mana III] or [Magical Might III]. They require training up another 100 Mana and 25 Magic, respectively. Something to occupy me for a few weeks as I train and battle my way through the Dungeon, but I want to hold off in case something better comes along.

Picking up the spell scroll, I examine it. This spell scroll confirms my theory about the System trying to help us.

Otherwise, what are the odds that my Tier II spell scroll would be for the exact spell I was planning on trying to learn?