I slogged my way through the woods to a river and I tripped a Perception check to go south. I would eventually reach town but not before I cleared several more mobs. A slog indeed. I would reach level 5 before hitting the town, which was good because I needed to work on my social skills.

I had been in the woods a few hours and the weak light was getting weaker by the minute. Luckily I had enough light to catch the rest of the bandits unaware in their camp. 3 of them.

Camped Forest Bandit LV 3 50 EXP

Hp 60 STR 10 DEX 10 CON 10 MOV 20/s

Skills: Stab: 15 damage

I had to be very careful here, these bandits were a little tougher, though luckily they still died in 3 hits. But it was now 8 instead of 10 for me and I had an extra mob to deal with. Luckily I had a bit more health and mana and an extra 2 spells.

The first thing I did was drop Extend. It was expensive but worth it. Then my standard pattern. Quicken, now at 6*1.2*1.375=9.9 seconds. 40*1.5=60 mana though. Ouch. There went my level gain. Then I got in close and dropped Lockdown on my new friends. 6.6 seconds. I was now out 120 mana. Luckily I was attacking just as fast with Haste. 40 for 30, 20 for 15 and one was down. I had two spells left in me mana wise thanks to the cost of Extend. I came at the other bandit and traded another 60 for 45 health. Then before Quicken wore off, Stupefaction. I finished the last bandit with 20 health to spare. Not ideal but it wasn't bad. Had mana for another spell left even.

3*1.2*50 = 180 exp

+188exp (43/200) (31/400) Lvl Up!!!

You have gained 10HP, 21MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point!

I was now level 2. I spent another 2 stats on CON and I was at 122 health. 252 mana. Quicken almost wore off in that last battle, so another +2 skill points. The cap was 5 per phase so only one left to max out for now. 7s base duration. As noted I was having some trouble with Selection points. Not much to spend them on. In the end I stored them up for a Phase Boost. I would either boost Chronomancy, because Time Magic is the best magic, or perhaps Arcane, to pick up Arcane Missile. I suppose I could have tried saving 2 points and doing Illusion but I mostly took that for non-combat stuff.

Now, onward the slog! Well, no, wait. Loot. While previous encounters had returned mainly vendor trash and currency, which are functionally the same thing, the bandit camp was different. There was a +20 mana charm and a +5 damage charm. I would have preferred stat boosts but I wasn't super picky. There was also a practice guide for Trickery, 2 skill points in appropriate skills. I did not have any relevant skills, but not a bad grab for the future. Any good min-maxer is sneaking and picking doors and disabling traps and so forth.

I headed down the road yet again racing the night line towards the nearest city. Just a few hours till dark and one less till dusk. My next trial loomed ahead. Dangerous but more suited to your typical Chronomancer. A bear of the woods but not a common forest bear.

Wooded Cave Bear LV 5 150 EXP

Hp 200 STR 20 DEX 10 CON 20 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 15 damage | Bite: 20 damage | Armored: 20% PHY MIT | Bears!: -40% disable duration

This guy was bad news. He could take me down in 7 hits or so. Meanwhile I was going to have to hit him 10 times. And unlike the bandits it would be hard for me to outrun him and abuse my staff range. He was also large and angry. Not a tactical fighter like bandits or even wolves. Disables were much less effective although he couldn't block them. Luckily I spotted him before he spotted me or I might not have made it.

Extend, Quicken, approach, Stupefaction! I was quickly down 120 of 252 mana. I had 7*1.2*1.375 = 11.55s of Haste. -1 for Stupefaction. 1.65*5=8.25s of Stun *.6 = 4.95s of Stun. I smacked him 3 times with my staff for 25*(1-.2)=20 * 4 = 80 damage. Then another Stupefaction. 5.55s of Haste. 4.95s of Stun. Another 80 damage. Caste Stupefaction again. That was 240/252 mana. No more spells. Staff back to 2s attack. 40 damage in 4 seconds. Victory!

I was level 2 vs a level 5 so 150*1.3=195+31=226/400EXP.

I trudge along, ambushing and getting ambushed by pairs of forest wolves in turn. Level 2 so 25*4*1=100.

326/400EXP which means I will likely level with 1 more fight. 2 more Forest Bandits and here we are. I elide these battles only because having fought the same odds at a lower level nothing much interesting happens. I will occasionally detail an easy battle just to demonstrate progress but we are a bit early for that.

+80exp (406/400) (6/800) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 3!!!!

You have gained 14HP, 21MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point!

2 more stat points into CON, 1 skill point into Quicken for +2.5s duration. 1 skill point into Stupefaction for a total of 5.5s * multipliers of Stun. I save my selection points for the Phase Boost.

I now have 136 health and 273+20=293 mana. I have 20+5 damage. I get a nice bear pelt and some claws and fangs. Would have been useful if I was a crafter but good for some gold at least as is.

The woods were getting darker and darker even as the canopy was starting to thin near the edge. Creatures and monsters were much more active at night. At level 3 even with strong Tier 1 magic the things that bumped in the night were beyond me. I was casting Quicken every once in a while to speed me up but even with Extend the duration was pretty short and my mana didn't recover that fast.

After another hour I came upon a wolf pack. 4 Forest Wolves at once plus an Alpha Forest Wolf. Basic Forest Wolves were 2 hits a piece for me at this point but the Alpha was an issue. Luckily his buffs only applied to speed, which the wolves already had me beat on, and damage. Even a single extra health could have done me in.

Forest Wolf LV 1 25 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 50/s

Skills: Slash: 15 damage | Bite: 20 damage

Alpha Forest Wolf LV 5 150 EXP

Hp 150 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 20 damage | Bite: 25 damage

Yet another case where grabbing Perception had saved my life. Lucky it was so useful since I would have preferred Persuasion if I had spawned in a settlement.

I went through my standard process. Extend, then Quicken. I changed it up a little after that. I cast Lockdown but not on the Alpha. So it came at me and got off a hit before Stupefaction kicked in. But it was now a 1v1 fight. I needed to cast Lockdown every 4 seconds, counting in my cast time, to keep the fight fair.

I had 1.2*1.375*7.5=12.375 seconds of Haste, -2 for spells. Lockdown was sadly only 4*1.65=6.6 seconds. -1 for spells. Stupefaction was 5.5*1.65=9.075 seconds -0 so far. I was down 20 health from slash to 116/136. I was down 180/293 mana. I started whailing on wolfdaddy while my timers churned. After 5 hits I refreshed Lockdown. After the 6th hit I had my kill. Lockdown was at 3.4 seconds. That was 10.375-7 for Haste. Not great. Another Haste added 7.5*1.2=9 seconds. Lockdown at 2.4. That was another 8 mana so 260/293. I had recovery of course, 7*8=56. So 33+56. 2 more un-buffed spells. 89 mana. Using my lockdowns allowed me to finish off the fight barely. Only 20 damage. Lucky. An ambush would have had me taking a minimum of 40 and potentially getting all the way to the red zone.

Forest Wolves are 25*.8 for being 2 levels lower. 4*20-80. The Alpha Forest Wolf was 150*1.2=180. All in all 260 EXP. Not bad. 266/800. Got some okay crafting ingredients plus vendor trash. I went along clearing out 2 small packs, 2+1 of wolves and alphas using roughly the same strategy. 440exp.

I now had 706/800EXP. I fought another Wooded Cave Bear to get me over the top. 180 EXP.

+180exp (886/800) (86/1600) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 4!!!!

You have gained 16HP, 21MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point!

136+16=152 HP. 293+21=314 Mana. 2 points to CON 18. Saving my 2 selection points. I still hadn't decided on what Talent to Phase Boost. Did I want to buff my awesome Time Magic? It is the best magic. However it also costs 2 extra Selection points to boost. And so I'd only get 1 skill selection at level 6. Arcane on the other hand was a 2nd Tier magic but Arcane Missile at level 5. Tough choices. I had 6 selection points. I spent my skill points on Stupefaction. 6.5s duration.

So level 5 was going to be a big deal. Not only would I Phase Boost a Talent but I would get 2 Ability points, 1 normal one and a bonus one from my Template. However it was going to take quite a bit of grinding to get there, especially since I hadn't become much stronger at level 3 and level 4.

I went back to walking. So much walking. Wtf. This wasn't The Two Towers... I swept along the road clearing up some wolves and bandits. A few Alphas but no Camp Bandits. Nothing useful loot wise though I'd have a tidy some of gold to spend in the city after selling my inventory. I even had to start ignoring some of the more common vendor trash.

Finally after 2 hours it was Dusk. With a capital D, because it was a game mechanic. I could see the lights from the city. I didn't know I would hit level 5 before I got there. I mention that to my readers with the benefit of hindsight. I had 1000 EXP. How many bandits could there be in 400 yards?

Then I heard it. The roar. Oh shit. I popped Extend and Quicken right as it dashed into the road. A Dusk Prowler. Some sort of monstrous half bear/half wolf/half elk horror. Yeah 1.5 halves. This was some unnatural shit shut the fuck up. I was level 4. This was not supposed to happen to me. Hah, of course this kind of thing happened to me on multiple occasions. Perhaps there was something to be said for the tranquility of starting off in a newbie zone with an Uncommon Template instead of a Unique or even Legendary one...

Dusk Prowler LV 9 400 EXP

Hp 600 STR 20 DEX 10 CON 40 MOV 50/s

Skills: Slash: 25 damage | Bite: 30 damage | Armored: 20% PHY MIT | Oh My!: -40% disable duration

No escape. That is for sure. I cast Stupefaction as fast as I can but take 25 damage first. 6.5s*1.2*1.375*.6=6.435s of Stun. Quicken is at 11.375. I still have one spell with boosted duration. -120 mana = 190 mana.

I begin to buffet the Dusk Prowler with my lame staff attacks. Thank god it doesn't have the full Bears! duration reduction. Hopefully that is enough. I deal 20 damage, so I need 20 hits to win. That does not look promising. After 6 seconds I recast Stupefaction. 120 damage down, 480 to go. I'm down to 130 mana. I cast Quicken, 2.375+12.375-1=13.65s of Haste. I've got 5.435s of Stun. 5 more hits. I'm down to 90-40=50 mana after Stunning again. Plus recovery of course. 100 more damage down. 380 to go. Haste down to 7.65. Stun to 6.435. 120 more damage down. 260 to go. I am at 10+117=127 mana because of recovery. That is one more Haste and 2 more Stuns. I cast stun, then Quicken, 5 hits, 100 damage down, 160 to go, Stun, 5 hits, 100 more damage down, 60 to go. Stun, Quicken, 5 hits. Last stun putting me at too low to cast another spell. Victory.

I recover roughly 49 mana per Stun. Every 2 stuns I have to Quicken so 120 Mana, but I gain only 98. I got super lucky with my 20 extra mana and 5 extra damage from the bandits. I was going to start taking serious damage because without Quicken my DPS is cut in half, as is my spell casting speed. In the end I get to 600 exp I needed. It would have been quite a shame to die right outside of town. EXP penalties drop you back to the last level as well, which is quite harsh. More importantly it involves a lot of boring grinding which you don't want to hear about. My yadda yadda yadda-ing over that makes it seem like a weak punishment from your perspective, etc. A bad time all around. 400*1*1.5(level difference of 5 levels)=1000+600=1600=Level 5.

+600exp (1600/1600) (86/3200) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 5!!!!

You have gained 18HP, 21MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point(bonus) + 1 ability point +1 ability point(bonus)!

That was a terrifying experience but also lucky in a way. I hit level 5 with 2 ability points right outside of town.

I had 152+18=170HP and 314+21=335 Mana. I spent 2 stat points, the last 2 for a long while, on CON. I was now getting 20 health a level, which was a needed boost. Gaining just 10 a level with a base of 100 meant I risked getting one shot if I ever slipped up on my spell chains.

I spent my 2 ability points pretty quickly. I already had Charismatic from my Secret Background and Charming from Illusion. So I grabbed Persuasive from the basic ability tree. I took Linguist next. You never know. Might as well max out social traits right before town. I now have 2 skill points and 8 selection points to dispose of. If not for Enigmatic from my SB Ability Tree I would definitely have been a lot weaker and probably forced to take a damage spell or something from the weaker Talents. Either that or grind quite slowly.

Arcane was an amazing Talent to have for a similar reason. Without Arcane Missile coming up in Phase 2 I would have been quite limited. My Quest Reward Free Talent was great for damage but it was a little ways out and anyway I didn't know I'd be getting it at the time I hit level 5. Most Uncommon or higher Wizard Templates had Arcane. It was a key Wizard Talent. It was uniquely powerful for me with my Secret Background Talents however. The only downside was that until Phase 2 I lacked the Tier 3 Damage Talents available to normal Magic Templates.

This is mostly a primer for later but there are upsides and downsides to gaining extra Templates of the same Archetype. In my case this was Magic. You don't gain the versitility of new Archetype Talents. And sometimes you run into a situation where both Templates have the same Talent. Arcane being the most common Magic example. In these situations you gain a cost reduction to Phase Boosting that Talent but the boost doesn't totally offset the loss of a Talent. 1, 2, 2 less Selection points per Phase, though it is retroactive.

The upside of course is specialization and synergy. Templates of the same type complement each other. This is good for those in parties but for me it isn't so great since I have to cover all the non-combat skills myself. Still it is better than nothing. And now, speaking of Arcane, lets see what I get.

First I'll show you the Phase Boost Bonus:

Arcane Phase 1 Spell List:

Arcane Usurption: Ignore Type Disadvantage | 5 spells | Cast 2s | 60 mana

Arcane Endowment: +6 mana cost _ +6 damage _ +16% damage | 4 spells | Cast 2s | 60 mana

Arcane Stupefaction: Stun 8(+1.5SP Bonus)s | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s | 60 mana

Each spell costs 20 more mana but it gains 20ft of range if applicable as well as +50% duration rounded up. Spells with damage or other modifiers get a 50% bonus as well. For Enhancement spells you get +1 if there is an effect boost or +2 if there is not. Ignore Type Disadvantage can't be boosted for instance so Usurption gets an extra spell modified, +2 instead of +1. Endowment does have a boost so it only gets 1 extra spell. This seems like a large boost but you should remember you are burning selection points and not mere skill points.

Now we get to the real changes. New Spells/Abilities. As a Tier 2 Talent Arcane gets 3 spells per Phase.

Arcane Phase 2 Spell List:

Arcane Proficiency: -20% mana cost(multiplicative) | 4 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Vigor: +20% duration | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Missile: 50 damage(unreduceable) | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Now it takes 7 Selection Points to Phase Boost a Tier 2 Talent. So the only thing I could pick for now was Arcane Missile. But it was a big boost. I could take Endowment and Vigor next level. Vigor was arguably superior to Extend in many ways. As a practical matter it meant I could boost my buffs and nerfs even more and it would tie in well to the Free Talent I was too pick up in a few days. Of course High Mage was a strong boost to Extend which Vigor didn't receive.

I abused my new social abilities and my Illusion Perk to get into the town after dusk. I had some fancy crafting materials from the Dusk Prowler to sell. Too bad it didn't have any top tier loot. It likely wasn't intended as a serious boss monster though so it made sense.

I got into town and spent some gold on a room at an inn. I ate well and slept off my ordeal. The following morning I headed to the market and shed my crafting materials and vendor trash for good coin. I had shopping to do. First though I went and registered at the Guild of Mages and the Guild of Adventure. Now that I had Arcane Missile I had my Wizard Staff enchanted to Mage Staff standards. 10+STR+INT/2 as well as 4 INT and +50 mana. That plus membership fees cost me about 50 Silver out of my 2 Gold. Another 50 got me a Mage Robe with +5 INT and +5 WIS and +5 MEM. Now I was a real mage.

My trip to the Guild of Adventure was similarly fruitful. I picked up some Quests for monster hunting with various rewards. This was mostly a way to shorten grind times. It cost me 50 Silver for Membership. I had 50 Silver remaining. As I left the Guild I met a harried Half Elf Mage who saw me with both badges. I assume this was a benefit of my various social traits. I had +1rep with everyone as well as the potential for bonus interactions, and cheaper costs which I had just benefitted from, from Persuasive. Linguist got me knowledge of Low Elvish and the accompanying Reputation and dialogue bonuses.

After speaking to my distraught guildmate I came away with a quest to find his twin brother, the black sheep of the family, who was deep in the forest studying less than savory magic. Nothing truly vile of course, after all you'd imagine Pyromancy to be evil if you were from our world. But something slightly dirtier than fire magic. He'd had taken his lesser status the hardest of the two boys, being part human. I was technically a High Human but I still counted regular humans as my kind so this racial animus was a bit irritating.

Luckily for the Twins they were byblow and not the product of an elven maiden who had been assaulted or dirtied herself with humans. A male elf sowing some wild oats was more of a misdemeanor, since it didn't really require much of him or the elven community. In any case I promised to delve into the woods and ascertain the status of the greyer brother. This was a long quest but I assumed, rightly, that it had a payoff justifying the effort. I would hit level 6 first to get my Arcane glory going and then enter the world of low level Elven politics.