Chapter 86: Paths to Travel

Chapter 86: Paths to Travel

Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

Your Level has increased to 15.

Due to achieving Level 15 in the Minute Mage Class, you have been granted the following benefits:

-You have gained 1 Endurance.

-You have gained 2 Conjuration.

-You have gained 1 Intelligence.

-You have gained 3 Stat Points.

-Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Conjuration.

-Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 15.

-You may choose a Spell to learn.

-You may choose a Talent to obtain.

I looked over my Level up when the notification came in, sitting on the now-dead Mountain Troll. Not the most bountiful trigger of Recursive Growth – I typically wanted to see more Endurance and Conjuration than Strength and Dexterity – but free Stats were free Stats.

Besides, I really didn’t care about that. I was much more interested in those last two parts. A Spell and a Talent. This was a huge milestone for me.

“Just got to 13,” Erani said, apparently reading her own notification. “Gonna get my Level 15 Talent soon.”

“I just got mine,” I grinned, hopping off the corpse of our foe. But I stumbled when I hit the ground, my legs crumpled beneath me, and I fell straight to the ground.

“Shit, are you alright?!” Erani rushed over to help me up.

It was at that point I realized that my physical Stats were still severely drained from the Ghoul attacks. Well, that, and my Stamina was low from the intense fight. Even if my Stats weren’t technically lower than an Unclassed person’s now, I’d gotten so used to having the boost that losing it felt crippling.

“Yeah, I’m okay” I grumbled in response to Erani. “Got hit by a few Ghouls. Stats are at minus six right now.”

Her eyes widened at that. “How much more until paralysis?”

“Recursive Growth helps a bit, so it’s not too bad. Strength and Dexterity are at 11, so I can take a few more hits before they drop to 0.”

Erani glanced over as the Dryad attacked an approaching Ghoul with her whip, severing it in two. After a moment, she looked back at me. “Dryad says she’s getting pretty low on Stamina after that fight. Anyway, If you’re at minus six, your Health’s gotta have a pretty low maximum, right?”

“Yeah, 260. Though it’ll take a bit to get up there. I dropped down to 58 in the fight.”

“Shit,” she grimaced. “Sorry I couldn’t help more. That thing used its speed ability in the cave and got away from us. Seems like it was trying to isolate and kill you before coming back to us.”

“Yeah, well, luckily I put up more of a fight than it was anticipating,” I chuckled roughly. I really did feel pretty awful, with the low Health and Stamina, and my Stats being lower than I was used to. The physical injuries I’d sustained definitely didn’t help, either.

The Dryad killed another Ghoul, severing its head from its body.

“How much longer can she last?” I asked.

“Probably not long. And I’m pretty low on Mana, too. Are you thinking...?”

“Yeah, I’m considering Time Loop. Uh, sorry for telling you, I know it kinda makes you...”

“Feel existential dread? Yeah,” she chuckled darkly. “I guess you’ve dealt with this in the past.”

“Yeah, a couple times. You asked me not to tell you before using it in the future. So, uh, sorry. Again.”

She breathed and shook her head slightly. “I don’t want to make you feel bad for using it. I mean, it makes sense that you’d have to sometimes. Just– here, how about you just don’t say anything. Decide whether you’re going to use it on your own, and then use it if you’re gonna use it, don’t if you’re not. That way I don’t know. It’ll make things a lot easier for me.”

“If that’s what you want,” I said hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if that was the healthiest way to cope with things, but then, what would be? I had to admit that Time Loop was pretty philosophically terrifying to exist, and there wasn’t really any way to deal with it other than just not using it. Which wasn’t much of an option in our current situation.

I sighed and looked over my Status, feeling completely drained from the fight. My Stats were low, and so was my Health. Sure, I could restore it more quickly than normal with Regenerate, but even then, I was looking at a max Health that was 60 lower than it should’ve been. Even if I’d technically survived this fight, we’d probably be overwhelmed by Ghouls in a few hours. Hells, if we ran into one of those Mountain Trolls again, we’d die for sure.

And when I glanced around the surrounding wasteland, many, many pairs of red eyes stared back at me. Each of those were another Troll, waiting to strike. It seemed like they’d only attack if we got close, but who knew when we’d get unlucky, or not notice one, or – gods forbid – when that Dragon might come back. I didn’t like using Time Loop so early in the day, but keeping myself in this state for twenty-four hours may as well have been a death sentence.

I really just needed to go back and avoid the fight altogether – that thing was powerful enough that, no matter what, killing it would require me to take some heavy hits. Hits I couldn’t afford to take. If we went back, we could just wait in the forest for the Dragon to do its thing, and then move into the wasteland and travel without ever having to dodge its breath. And I’d still have another use, anyway.

With my latest Level-up, Time Loop could take me back up to three and a half hours. Going back that far, I could easily arrive back when we were in the forest, before we’d ever set foot in the wasteland. And from there, we could just watch safely and wait it out. Plus, we’d still have enough time for me to manage my Level-up. Which, admittedly, I was a bit eager to do.

I looked over at Erani, who was watching me with anticipation. I was pretty sure I’d come to a decision – now I just had to go back. I felt bad doing it without saying anything, but that was what she wanted, so...

And then I was back, standing in the forest and overlooking the gray ash of the wasteland. I’d chosen the three-and-a-half-hours option in the in-between space, giving us the most time to make sure we were in a safe spot. Plus, getting the extra XP from killing Ghouls and practicing Spells would be nice.

“Hey,” Erani looked over at me. I’d gotten good at masking the shudders that normally flooded my body whenever I came, but she’d also gotten good at recognizing them. “Time Loop?”

I nodded. “Nothing huge. But we do need to stay here for a while. Couple hours from now, there’s gonna be a Dragon that sweeps the area, and we need to take cover in the forest to keep safe. Also, we should keep an eye out for Mountain Trolls.”

“Keep an eye out for what?”

Brave the Elements - School: Alteration

Inspirit - School: Alteration, Divine

Bloodthirsty Blade - School: Curse, Summoning

Huh. Those were some interesting options. Ember Gale was solid damage per second in an absolutely massive radius, but would hurt me and my allies whenever I used it, and wasn’t very good against single targets. Expedite was a very efficient Stat boost, but could only increase Dexterity, so it wasn’t incredibly flexible. And Heartstone was a strange Spell that seemed to focus more on utility than anything else. At least, it didn’t seem useful in the middle of a fight.

Part of me wanted to start trying to figure out what to choose right away, but I still had more things to look over. Namely, my Talents. If I took a Spell and then looked at my Talent Choice, I could realize that I’d made the wrong decision and want to change my mind. When I was hurting this badly for information, I needed to take whatever I could get.

So I opened up my Talents and looked at them, too.

Choose one Talent to obtain:

Status Reconstruction

Type: Activated

—

Set your Health, Stamina, and Mana to exactly what they were thirty seconds ago.

This Talent may only be activated once per day.

Intelligence information:

If you choose this option, your next Talent options will be:

Body Reconstruction

Mind Reconstruction

Spirit Reconstruction

Precognition

Type: Activated

—

See a flash of the future. When activated, you will be shown what will happen over the course of the next ten minutes if you were to proceed with no information of the future.

This Talent may only be activated once per day.

Intelligence information:

If you choose this option, your next Talent options will be:

Retrograde

Time Dilation

Inverse Perception

Exponential Reclamation

Type: Passive

—

Time is warped around your Mana receptors, greatly increasing Mana/Minute the more Conjuration you have. For every point you have in Conjuration, your Mana/Minute is increased by 1%. This effect multiplies with itself. (Currently multiplies Mana/Minute by 2.35)

Intelligence information:

If you choose this option, your next Talent options will be:

Cumulative Catastrophe

Spatial Flux

Future Sight

Yeah, these options were even more difficult to choose from. Status Reconstruction could effectively double my Health, Stamina, and Mana, but only if I used it optimally. If, over the course of thirty seconds, I got hit for most of my Health, spent most of my Mana, and used up a bunch of my Stamina on something like Regenerate, only for me to get hit again, and then used that Talent, I’d be back to full with my opponent still having spent all that energy on fighting me.

Precognition was also fascinating. It was similar to Time Loop in that it’d give me knowledge of what would happen in the future, but with this, I had to use it before those events transpired, not after. So, while in some situations it was effectively an extra use of the Talent, in others, it wasn’t. It couldn’t help at all against sneak attacks or anything else I wasn’t expecting, for example. And, of course, it didn’t give me any extra XP. But Time Loop was so powerful, even something that just approached its power could still have its uses.

And then there was Exponential Reclamation. Currently, it’d bring my Mana/Minute from 18 to 43. And, of course, it’d only get better in the future – every time I got another point in Conjuration, my Mana/Minute would increase by another 1%. But the real question was what I could use that Mana regeneration on. It wouldn’t touch my maximum Mana at all, so it’d be difficult to use the extra regeneration in the middle of a fight. But if I played my cards right, like I did during the fight with the Mountain Troll, I could extend an encounter out long enough to regenerate enough Mana for multiple additional Spells.

With the two choices looming in front of me, I had many paths ahead of me that could determine my future. Not only whether I’d immediately survive Kingdom’s Edge, but also my life afterward, and how I’d get by in the new empire I was traveling to. With all the different combinations, I could lead myself in many different directions.

Now, I just had to pick the correct one.